# なんぞ; なぞ; なんど



## kman1

Can someone please explain what these three meaning very clearly?  I asked my Japanese native friend but he does not know how to explain it.


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## kenmore

kman1 said:


> Can someone please explain what these three meaning very clearly?  I asked my Japanese native friend but he does not know how to explain it.



なんぞ & なぞ is used to take one of things as example. It is often used to defer or obscure decision.
For example, あの店で お茶なんぞ（なぞ）飲もう。 means I want to dring tea or something at the cafe.
But he just mentioned tea for example and he may or may not drink it.

I have never heard なんど for this usage. But the difference in pronounciation between ど and ぞ is very small and somtimes they can be exchanged.
Also なんぞ & なぞ are somewhat old style。 とか is more common。

These words have multiple meaning and I would explain better if you can give examples.


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## kman1

kenmore said:


> These words have multiple meaning and I would explain better if you can give examples.


Here is an example my friend used when he was explaining another grammar concept to me. 

そうなったときに人がやりたがることなんぞ察しがつく

I translated that as “When that happens, I can only imagine the things that people will want to do.”  My translation is probably incorrect though.  I don't know what なんぞ means here either.


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## kenmore

なんぞ adds implication of disrespect to the taget.
In this case, it is used to indicate 人がやりたがること is too typical and not interesting.
Translation would be like this.

It is too easy to predict what people will do in such situation.


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## Schokolade

> なんぞ;なぞ;なんど


Maaaybe you meant to type なんぞ;なぞ;など　??

#2 http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/164368/m0u/など/
#3 http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/je2/56367/m0u/など/


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## kman1

Ok, thank you.  I think I get it now.  

@Schokolade - なんど does not exist?


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## Schokolade

kman1 said:


> @Schokolade - なんど does not exist?


It does but we normally say it to mean 何度/納戸/難度, http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/srch/je/なんど/m0u/
and なんど as an adverbial particle, as in your example, is way less common than など, なぞ, なんぞ, なんか or なんて.
http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/165883/m0u/なんど/


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## kman1

Schokolade said:


> and なんど as an adverbial particle, as in your example, is way less common.
> http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/165883/m0u/%E3%81%AA%E3%82%93%E3%81%A9/


1. I still don’t understand what なんど means as an adverb...?  There were a number of words I could not find in my dictionary that are listed in the link you posted.  Namely, 副助 & 露伴...

2. But I will take a stab at translating the definition in the link anyway.  I think it reads like this: 

_[Adverb] A sound change of なにと.  It is similar to など
「Grow that in a bucket」〈 quoted of the author 露伴 from his book 魔法修行者〉_

Correct?


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## Schokolade

kman1 said:


> 1. I still don’t understand what なんど means as an adverb...? There were a number of words I could not find in my dictionary that are listed in the link you posted. Namely, 副助 & 露伴...
> 
> 2. But I will take a stab at translating the definition in the link anyway. I think it reads like this:
> 
> _[Adverbial particle] A sound change of なにと. It is the same as など
> 「Grow that in a (well) bucket or the sort)」〈 quoted of the author 露伴 from his book 魔法修行者〉_
> 
> Correct?



The online dictionary says なんど as an adverbial particle(=副助詞) means the same as など. 

"副助" stands for 副助詞. 
Yes 露伴 is a name of a writer.


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## kman1

Schokolade said:


> _It is the same as など_


If に同じ means 'the same as' then what would 'it is similar to...' be?


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## Schokolade

I think "に同じ" would mean it's totally interchangeable, regardless of the context or without changing the meaning. (So, maybe it's my English. When you say "A is similar to B", does it mean A can be replaced with B in any context without changing the meaning?)
Here, probably it's meant to say more like "See the page of など", because なんど as "~or the sort" "something like~" "et cetera" is rarely used at least in modern Japanese.


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## kman1

Schokolade said:


> (So, maybe it's my English. When you say "A is similar to B", does it mean A can be replaced with B in any context without changing the meaning?)


"Is similar to" and "is the same as" have different meanings.  I looked up "Is similar to" in the dictionary and I believe it is "に似る".  Correct?


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## Schokolade

kman1 said:


> "Is similar to" and "is the same as" have different meanings. I looked up "Is similar to" in the dictionary and I believe it is "に似る".  Correct?



Ah okay, so "is similar to" and "is the same as" are similar to each other but not the same.  

Exactly. "Is similar (to~)" normally translates to "(~に)似る", "(~に)似た" or "(~に)似ている". 
(In some J-J/E-J dictionaries you might find terms such as 類義語/類語/類 etc. used to refer to 似た言葉, "words with similar meanings", or "(quasi-)synonyms".)


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## kman1

Schokolade said:


> Ah okay, so "is similar to" and "is the same as" are similar to each other but not the same.


Hahaha!!  Correct!  lol!  (You probably knew this all along though...  )


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