# 生きていくうえで100%必要なものじゃない?



## guardian_of_time

Hello! 
I was trying to translate an article from a magazine, and there was this sentence that got me confused. the topic was _love_.
生きていくうえで100%必要なものじゃない?
i took a guess and translated it as "isn’t it something 100% necessary to live?"
but i don't know whether it's right. mainly the part that got me troubled was "...うえで100%...". i don't really understand the use of "うえ" here. 

Thank you for your help.


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## Lamb67

Love is not indispensible in life.


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## anniS

i would agree with your first translation and translate the うえ with something like "as long as you're alive, isn't love 100% necessary ?!"


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## almostfreebird

【生きていくうえで100%必要なものじゃない】 more or less means
(something) is not really necessary when living.
(something) is not absolutely necessary in living.

In this case, "うえで" simply means "when" or "in". 

----------------------------------------------------

上（うえ）で has a similar function to おいて sometimes:

Example from http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=於いて&dtype=3&dname=2na&stype=0&pagenum=1&index=00477700

The material is inferior in quality.
その材料は質において劣る＝その材料は質の上で劣る


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## anniS

I see there is 2 opinion on the "じゃない" guardian_of_time, do you have a question mark at the end of the sentence or not ?! it may change everything !


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## ponpa

Per guardian_of_time san's question, it's based on the topic of "love".
I guess the translation can be;

Love is not 100% essential for life, is it?

guys, I just translate the phrase but I don't agree with the idea because I am a romanticist


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## Flaminius

*ponpa*,

While I agree with you that the sentence somehow refers to the idea that love is not a 100% necessity but I doubt that it is the speaker's point.  In fact, they seem to be in disagreement with the person who brought up the idea.

In English I'd say:
Are you saying that love is not a 100% necessity in life?! [The tone is one of disbelief.]

By the way, welcome to the WordReference Forums!  

Edit:
I understand じゃない in here as negation but it is just as good to interpret it as emphasis (in that case, the speaker asserts that love is essential in life irrelevant to what has been previously said in discourse).  *guardian_of_time*, would you care to provide context (up to 3 sentences before or after the sentence you quoted) for disambiguation?


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## almostfreebird

quote:
In English I'd say:
Are you saying that love is not a 100% necessity in life?!
unquote
わたしも　そう　おもいました。


quote:　guys, I just translate the phrase but I don't agree with the idea because I am a romanticist
unquote
guys（ガイズ）　と言う呼びかけに　ちょっと　ひるみました(^_^)。


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## guardian_of_time

*S*orry for the delay, *I* didn't get any reply notifications 
*A*nd thank you very much for your help m(_._)m



anniS said:


> I see there is 2 opinion on the "じゃない" guardian_of_time, do you have a question mark at the end of the sentence or not ?! it may change everything !


it is a question mark. 

*A*lso, to Flaminius - thank you for welcoming me , and *I* just looked at the whole context. *T*he interviewer brings the topic up, by saying "Love, that conspicuous thing", to which the person in question responds "Dare ka wo omou kimochi wa honnou dashi, renai wa, ikiteiku ue de 100% hitsuyou na mono ja nai?"
*T*hat's the whole part. *T*he subject is slightly changed afterwards.
to ponpa: *I* don't agree with the idea either, and it's also weird to hear it coming from that person's mouth, maybe that's part of the reason *I* took my guess and translated it that way


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## ponpa

almostfreebirdさん、

驚かせてすみません。"guysという呼びかけ"はこちらのforumでは不適切な表現でしたね...これからをつけます。


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## Flaminius

Hi, *GoT*.

Thanks for the context.  I hope I don't sound too obsessive if I, as the moderator, ask you to always provide context for your next enquiries.


> Dare ka wo omou kimochi wa honnou dashi . . .


This clears things up!  The じゃない in 必要なものじゃない is indeed used for emphasis.  I'd use a translation that starts with "Don't you think . . . " or ends with ". . . you know."  Since this じゃない is not negation, it does not affect the proposition, or the main theme, which is:
Love is a 100% necessity in life.  (Yey!)

While you further study Japanese, you will probably encounter a lot of expressions like じゃない that do not affect the makeup of the proposition but express the speaker's attitude toward it.


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## guardian_of_time

Hey 
No, you're not obsessive at all, it was my fault from the very beginning. If I had given more context I wouldn't have troubled ppl like this ^^;
I'm sorry.

Also, thanks a lot for all the explanations, will keep it all in mind. I'm glad it all turned out well in the end. Thank you m(_._)m


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