Help translating a sentence?
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Hi everyone, I'm having trouble translating the meaning of this sentence. Could you please help me out?
えっと、ほかになにをいえばいいかわからない。
えっと means "ummm" right?
ほかに I think means "others".
なにを means "something" and it is the object of the sentence right?
えいば i think means "speaking of".
わからない means "don't know"
But I don't know what いいか means. Is iika one word?
"ii" means good. But isn't "ka" a question?
It means "ummm, I don't know what else to say" but what is ii ka doing"
could someone please explain the purpose of the words?
thank you :)
えっと、ほかになにをいえばいいかわからない。
えっと means "ummm" right?
ほかに I think means "others".
なにを means "something" and it is the object of the sentence right?
えいば i think means "speaking of".
わからない means "don't know"
But I don't know what いいか means. Is iika one word?
"ii" means good. But isn't "ka" a question?
It means "ummm, I don't know what else to say" but what is ii ka doing"
could someone please explain the purpose of the words?
thank you :)
いえばいい is literally "if say (then) good"
なにをいえばいいか is "what if say would be good"
なに and か work together to make this a noun phrase representing the answer to the question; it is the answer to the question which one is saying one does not know.
ほかになにをいえばいいか is "what else if say would be good"
Does that help at all?
Generally, か at the end of a phrase including a question word works the same way as who/what/where/when/how followed by a phrase in English; it makes the phrase behave like a noun, which can then be the subject or object of a verb. かどうか acts in the same way like "whether or not" for a yes or no question.
ほかの behaves like an adjective, so "what else" would probably be ほかのなに instead.
For a godan verb in general, the conditional form is made by adding "ba" to the end of the stem ending in the vowel sound "e". For example, kaku (write) -> kake + ba = kakeba = if (I) write.
For an ichidan verb, add れば to the stem.
みれば = if (I) see
たべれば = if (I) eat
I should really say that it is one of the conditional forms; there is also a conditional form ending in たら (or だら) obtained by adding ら to the end of the plain past form.
I was a teacher, but a mathematics teacher, not a language teacher. :-)
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar
Tony's answer is perfect. There is noting to be desired even by Japanese（；゜０゜）！
I am so inspired.
I have to study also Japanese(^^;)
いえば i think means "speaking of".