# about to V



## kyn

How do you say this in Japanese: "I don't know why but she suddenly screamed (like/as if) she's (gonna/about to) die."


----------



## FaWzY

This is a pretty wild guess, so feel free to correct it..
私は分かりません何で彼女が死にみたい叫びしました
(watashi wa wakarimasen nande kanojo ga shinde-mitai sakebi shimashita)


----------



## uchi.m

kyn said:


> "I don't know why but she suddenly screamed (like/as if) she's (gonna/about to) die."



My attempt:

わけは分からないけど、彼女は突然死にそうな叫びをした。


----------



## Kakeru

I will adapt a bit;


わけは知らないが、彼女突然悲鳴を上げた。​


----------



## uchi.m

Kakeru said:


> I will adapt a bit;
> 
> 
> わけは知らないが、彼女突然悲鳴を上げた。​



Wouldn't it be 挙げた instead? _Ageru_ is quite difficult to write with kanji, since I never know which one is the right one.


----------



## cheshire

kyn said:


> How do you say this in Japanese: "I don't know why but she suddenly screamed (like/as if) she's (gonna/about to) die."


なぜ（なの）かわからないが、
なぜだか知らないが、

彼女はとつぜん悲鳴をあげた。
彼女はとつぜん金切声をあげた。

まるで今にも死ぬかと思うばかりに。
まるで今にも死ぬかと思うほど。
まるで今にも死にそうなくらいに。
まるで今にも死にそうと思えるほど。

彼女は死ぬといわんばかりの悲鳴をあげた。


----------



## kyn

Thanks, guys. 
What I really wanted to ask was the structure: someone does something like/as if something is about to happen


----------



## Flaminius

uchi.m said:


> Wouldn't it be 挙げた instead? _Ageru_ is quite difficult to write with kanji, since I never know which one is the right one.


挙 is usually used for lifting something heavy as in 重量挙げ (weightlifting).  Several instances of 挙げる is Japanese readings of Sino-Japanese words such as 手を挙げる (< 挙手) and 兵を挙げる (< 挙兵).



kyn said:


> Thanks, guys.
> What I really wanted to ask was the structure: someone does something like/as if something is about to happen


A direct corresponding construction is: V しそうだ.
E.g., この木は今にも倒れそうだ
This tree is about to collapse any time.


----------



## kyn

So, my example, would it be 死にそうに叫ぶ?


----------



## Flaminius

*kyn*, I am afraid 死にそうに叫ぶ means something else.  [Don't get frustrated because I am to blame for not anticipating how people like to improvise.]

The construction "V1 そうに V2" presents the action of V1 as the very possible/imminent result of V2.  Your 死にそうに叫ぶ means, therefore, "to cry [so hard] that one is about to die."  Here are two examples I think are easier to conceive:





> 死にそうに眠い (rather common youth speech feature)
> I am so sleepy that I am almost dead.
> 
> 頭が割れそうに痛い
> My head aches so hard that it can crack any moment.



The sentence given by *uchi.m* is very close to what I would actually say.  Here is my rendition for his sentence:
わけは分からないけど、彼女は突然死にそうな叫び声をあげた。
where 声をあげる is a productive idiom for making exclamations (cf. 泣き声をあげる, 笑い声をあげる and so on).

The idea I like about the sentence is that a noun is brought in and getting modified by 死にそうな.  This in turn serves to block the main verb from being modified by the same, thereby avoiding the "so...that" interpretation mentioned above.


----------



## kyn

Yeah, I know what you mean.
But in this sentence you have a noun (叫び声) to attach 死にそうな to. So what about sentences with the same structure but there's no such noun? E.g. "She ran like/as if someone was going to kill her."


----------



## uchi.m

In this case, I think you use ~ように.


----------



## kyn

Yeah, I know ~ように means "as/like/as if~", but the structure combination I want to know is "like/as/as if something is about/going to happen", what should I use (together with ~ように) to say "about/going to happen"?


----------



## uchi.m

I took the liberty to pick your previous example and adapt it a bit by including _about_:



kyn said:


> So what about sentences with the same structure but there's no such noun? E.g. "_She ran like/as if someone was about to kill her."_



My (probably flawed?) translation attempt:

彼女は今にも殺されそうとして走り出した。


----------



## Flaminius

uchi.m said:
			
		

> 彼女は今にも殺されそうとして走り出した。


This sentence can use a slight modification to mean "She ran because someone was about to kill her."
彼女は今にも殺されそうになって走り出した。

*kyn*,
You can sort of combine "~ように" (as/like/as if~~ and "V そうに" (about to V) but I am afraid the sentence would be overburdened grammatically.  Remember that the adjectival 今にも can well express the imminence of an action.
彼女は今にも殺されるかのように走り出した。


----------

