Structure
Verb + のなんのって
[い]Adjective + のなんのって
[な]Adjective + な + のなんのって
Details
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Casual
About のなんのって
のなんのって is a casual phrase that is used in spoken Japanese to indicate that the word before it is 'excessively (A)', or 'extremely (A)'. This structure consists of the case marking particle の, the pre-noun adjectival 何の 'what kind of', and って, an abbreviation of という 'to say'.
The literal meaning of 'and to say it's (A) or something' just indicates that something is so (A) that if it is not that then the speaker doesn't know what to call it.
This structure will be seen after い-Adjectives, な-Adjectives followed by な, and verbs.
のなんのって itself is a more condensed variation of ~の~ないのって, which has the same meaning, but has (A) appear in both the positive and negative for 'to say it's (A) or not (A), (B)', where (B) will usually be a phrase explaining the extent of (A). Occasionally (B) will be left unsaid, as ~の~ないのって itself is always used to mean 'extremely (A)'.
Examples
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A:「疲れた顔だね。」
B:「昨日は騒音で眠れなかったから、もう眠いのなんのって・・・」
A: 'You look tired!'
B: 'I couldn't sleep yesterday because it was noisy, so I am already extremely sleepy…'
友達は日帰り旅行について話す、A:「で、お腹がすいてなかった?」
B:「そりゃお腹がすいたのなんのって、一人でご飯三杯も食べたよ。」
Friends talking about a day trip, A: 'And then? Weren't you hungry?'
B: 'I was extremely hungry. I ate three bowls of rice by myself!'
A:「今買ったケーキはどう?食べてみたい。」
B:「ケーキおいしいのなんのって、もう完食しちゃったほど。」
A: 'How is the cake we bought today? I want to try.'
B: 'It was so delicious (to the point) that I ate it all already.'
A:「田舎はどうだった?」
B:「よかったよ。静かなのなんのって虫の音が聞こえる。とてもリラックスできた。」
A: 'How was the countryside?'
B: 'Great! It was so quiet that one could hear the insects chirping. I was really able to relax.'
「あそこのエンジニアが下手クソでさ。修理が上手くないのなんのって。修理から一日経っただけでまた壊れたんだよ。」
'That engineer is absolutely terrible (at his job). He is extremely unskillful! Only one day after 'repairs' it broke again.'
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のなんのって – Grammar Discussion
Most Recent Replies (3 in total)
wrt7MameLZE33wlmpCAV
Can anyone help break down the Japanese here? I understand this is a phrase, but I’m having trouble figuring out what the distinct “words” are.
The って seems obvious: I’m guessing that’s the casual quote particle. The first の also seems to be nominalizing? So then, なん is なに and the の after it is emphatic/interrogative?
I could really use some help.
djcostcosamples
I was just wondering this too!
I found this answer on Stack Exchange: meaning - Why does ~なんてもんじゃない / ~のなんのって mean とても? - Japanese Language Stack Exchange
wrt7MameLZE33wlmpCAV
Aw, man, I always forget about the Japanese Stack Exchange. Thanks for the reference.
After reading the top answer there, I can’t believe that I actually parsed the syntax correctly. Even so, I couldn’t possibly have derived the right meaning from that alone.
That explanation from Stack Exchange helped quite a bit.
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