癖(くせ)にEven though, And yet, Despite

Most Recent Replies (5 in total)

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  _max

  Thank you for the answer!
  But really still pretty confused.
  癖に is kind of the same as のに, but with criticism.
  So it’s like “despite”, “even though”, etc.
  But in the example sentence we want to say “because”, not “even though”.
  “Because you are a man, don’t cry”, not “Even though you are a man, don’t cry”, correct?
  That’s why for me 癖に sounds strange in this sentence.

• 

  Scyamntic

  I think the fun fact for the gramar point helps to elucidate here:

  癖() is a word that has developed a ‘negative’ meaning over time. Originally, 癖() was used to convey a preference, or the side that someone or something tended to lean toward (due to it being favorable for some reason). When adding the case marking particle に to this, it merely expressed that (A) was the preferable state/location, so (B) not being/not acting in a way appropriate for (A) is less than desirable.

  So 男のくせに泣くな

  Can be thought of as:

  • “From the standpoint of being a man, not crying is prefereable”

  Or taking the more “habit” oriented meaning

  • “A habit of men is not crying”

  Definitely a weird coming from English, but the key take away to add to the primary meaning of “despite” in my opinion is this feeling of “(B) not being preferable”

• 

  _max

  Wow, it really works! Thank you, didn’t pay much attention to the “Fun Fact” section.
  Now, it kind of makes sense.