# っていうか



## thetazuo

ううん、それは魚っていうか、やっぱり雨なの。透明な水が、小さな魚の形をしてるの。それが外壁にぶつかって生き物みたいに跳ねてるの。でもそこの窓ははめ殺しで開かないし、じっと見ていたらやっぱりただの雨粒に見えてきて。 

Hi. What is the nuance of っていうか, compared with just ～か?
Thank you.


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## Yokozuna

'っていうか' is a colloquial form of 'というよりかは,' which means "rather than."
'か' means "or."


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## thetazuo

Yokozuna said:


> 'っていうか' is a colloquial form of 'というよりかは,' which means "rather than."
> 'か' means "or."


Thank you. Yes, I know that. But doesn’t っていうか mean that only when it is used at the beginning of a sentence? In this sentence, it is in the middle, attached to 魚.


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## Yokozuna

You can use っていうか to correct what you said before. 
When used in the middle, it means 'rather than.'
When used at the beginning, it also means 'rather than,' but sometimes it is used as a sign to change the topic.
This sentence is very colloquial, but as a whole, the girl describes raindrops that look like fish.
She seems so impressed by how the raindrops look lively, but she sais they were just raindrops.


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## thetazuo

Thank you again. I see.


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## thetazuo

今年の夏って、もうずっと雨ですよね。テレビでもずっと異常だって言ってるし、温暖化とか気候変動とか気温の極端化とか、異常がついに通常になっちゃった*っていうか*。うちの両親も、春と秋がなくなった、昔の方がずっと四季が豊かだったとかってぐちぐち言ってるし。

Hi. Can I ask another question?
What is the function of the っていうか in red?
Thank you.


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## Yokozuna

You gave me another good question.
The basic meaning of っていうか is 'rather than'.
But this example is an extended usage of っていうか.

What the speaker has said is 'abnormal has become normal,' which is a little bit strong message.
I guess he didn't want it sound asserting, so he added っていうか to imply that is not all he wanted to say.

In this context, 'as if' or 'like' is close to what he wanted to say.


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## Flaminius

To my mind both instances of ていうか brought up in this thread function as approximation.  The speaker looks for a good word for something that they want to describe and comes up with one.  Still, they are not satisfied with it.  This is how ていうか enters the text.


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## Yokozuna

Thank you for your revision. Your answer is more clear than mine.


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## thetazuo

Thank you both!


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