# どんだけ



## Sinbadx81

I don't have a whole lot of context for this. It's kind of slang that I've heard originated from homosexuals （おかま）. I've seen it on a few shows like SMAP's _Suma Suma_ show on Mondays. It seems like girls or homosexuals use it more often. The only man I've heard use it is Katori Shingo, but as a joke. 

Anyone know how this is used or the meaning? I think it comes from どれだけ but I'm interested what it would mean in the slang sense.


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## _forumuser_

Sinbadx81 said:


> I don't have a whole lot of context for this. It's kind of slang that I've heard originated from homosexuals ?????. I've seen it on a few shows like SMAP's _Suma Suma_ show on Mondays. It seems like girls or homosexuals use it more often. The only man I've heard use it is Katori Shingo, but as a joke.
> 
> Anyone know how this is used or the meaning? I think it comes from ???? but I'm interested what it would mean in the slang sense.



Look here:

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/keyword/%A4%C9%A4%F3%A4%C0%A4%B1%A1%C1

From what this article says, it means "You're shi**ing me," "No way!" "That's out of control!" etc.


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## cheshire

定まった意味は特にありません。狭い意味は持たず、作りたてほやほやの言葉を共有することにより仲間意識を確かめ合う、という機能があります。
広い意味を持ちます。非難めいて使うこともあれば、賞賛して使うこと、ただ驚いたときに発する、などです。どれだけー？！


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## tokimeki

You are asking what's the meaning of "どんだけ"?
It's just sorta dialect, I think. "どれだけ" is a standard Japanese that you can search in your dictionary, but guys also use it as girls and homosexual do.


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## akimura

I am trying to translate the Japanese phrase どんだけ (don dake) into an English word or phrase that may have a similar effect in English both semantically and phonetically.  I would appreciate it if anyone in this forum would help me with this.  I am thinking of "Just how!" as a candidate, so I am also wondering if it sounds initially weird but becomes understandable as you are given more and more contexts, which is pretty much how "どんだけ" sounds to our ear as well.  Probably "Just how!" is not an established phrase, but I am wondering if native English speakers would give it a chance, just like "As if!" seems to be rampant as an exclamation in colloquial English today, or like a local English slang which is used at one place and unused at another while at both locations, non-users of the slang could somehow understand what it means.

Or could it be said that "どんだけ～！" may be translated into "As if!"?

"どんだけ (don dake)" is a vogue word here, used almost as an exclamation, too rampant among young Japanese for the past couple of years or so.  It is gramatically an transposed version of the standard "どれだけ (dore dake)".  For more historic information, here is a Wikipedia entry (Japanese).

I am absolutely not an user of どんだけ, but from what I have guessed from the contexts given by my mid-teen students, here are some examples that I could come up with:

[Example 1]
A: わたし、1ヶ月で10kgやせちゃった。(I've lost 10kg in a month.)
B: *どんだけ～！*　（This probably means "*Just how* much weight you've lost!")

[Example 2]
One man was walking toward his car.  He realized he didn't have a key in his pocket.  He might say, "*どんだけ～*".  (This sounds "*Just how!*" to me. The phrase itself doesn't make much sense or sounds even weird.  But once you add some words to the phrase and make it, for example, "Just how foolish it's been of me to leave a key somewhere!", might "Just how!" become vaguely understanble in English?  If so, the same goes to the original Japanese "どんだけ～".)


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## kaito

Well I don't think you'll have much luck there, I've read the page (except for the 概要) but I can't think of a good general translation.
Probably "What the....(hell/f***)!" would fit most of the time when どんだけ is used exclamatory but the meanings differ too much.
I don't quite see how "どんだけ～!" equates to "as if!".

If somebody replied "Just how!" to your first example, it would be understood as disbelief roughly meaning "Just how did you do that ?!?". It's a pretty natural reply.
In the second example if he said "Just how!" I'd interpret it as "Just how did I manage to lose my keys", in this case it's rather an unnatural thing to say I feel.


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## xqby

I agree with Kaito, there aren't really any colloquial phrases that fit well.

The word that comes to my mind is "amazing," since you can stretch the second "a" sound (though maybe I don't understand what you mean by "phonetically") as well as use it in both examples you mentioned. It's not exactly slang or common, but it seems like a decent fit.


Also, "As if!" is an expression of disbelief or disagreement:
"I lost 10kg this month."
"As if! I'd say five at the most."


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## akimura

Thank you folks for your help!  And xqby's "Amazing!" is a good one, thank you.  Although it sounds to me capturing mostly the aspect of amazement, in many contexts it may fit well.  It may not fit well in some other contexts, but that's what often happens with language translation.



kaito said:


> If somebody replied "Just how!" to your first example, it would be understood as disbelief roughly meaning "Just how did you do that ?!?". It's a pretty natural reply.
> In the second example if he said "Just how!" I'd interpret it as "Just how did I manage to lose my keys", in this case it's rather an unnatural thing to say I feel.



If you think of どんだけ as a standard word, it's doesn't fit well to the second example even in Japanese either.  However, as a slang it has grown to be used in a variety of context, like the second example, where standanrd use of どんだけ or どれだけ doesn't well at all.  Slangs sometimes have this sort of aspects.  So I wondered whether native English speakers may initially think the second example wierd but more or less be able to give "Just how!" a try as an English translation of Japanese translation どんだけ～.  If so, since this is also a literal translation of どんだけ, it should fit pretty to much any context, which if possible is desirable, I thought.


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## kaito

Well personally if I were to translate such slangy stuff I'd pick the next natural thing the character would say there in the target language and just add a translators note explaining the original term, I think that's more convenient for the translator and that's how I personally prefer to read things that are hard to translate.


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## akimura

kaito said:


> Well personally if I were to translate such slangy stuff I'd pick the next natural thing the character would say there in the target language and just add a translators note explaining the original term, I think that's more convenient for the translator and that's how I personally prefer to read things that are hard to translate.



I agree.  And generally, I wouldn't seek literal translation this further.  But with this particular phrase, どんだけ, I was tempted to do so since I wondered how wonderful it would be if it could be literally translated into English and native English speakers could understand it.  My students would be excited to know that if it were the case, which would make my students' English learning experience a lot of fun.  I understand it would also be an education for my students to understand that literal translation do not necessarily work.



xqby said:


> I agree with Kaito, there aren't really any colloquial phrases that fit well.
> Also, "As if!" is an expression of disbelief or disagreement:
> "I lost 10kg this month."
> "As if! I'd say five at the most."



By the way, I took "As if!" as a translation of the slang どんだけ～ in this context, since teenagers go go:

A: 今月10kg痩せたんだ。
B: どんだけ～！　5kgってとこじゃないの？


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