Not Necessarily – 訳ではない

Nov 26, 2010

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Is that an Obama Bobble Head figurine I see? Why yes, it is! Some plucky employee has scrawled a message below it talking about black people. Do you know your grammar well enough to decipher it?

黒人が全員歌がウマイ訳ではないよ。

こくじんが　ぜんいん　うたが　ウマイ　わけでは　ないよ。

First up then, ‘all black people’ – 黒人が全員. Following that: 歌がウマイ – good at singing (literally ‘good songs’). Note here that ウマイ is used in katakana, but it can also be written in hirgana and kanji as so: 美味い (for taste) and 上手い (for being good at something). Generally then, うまい can be loosely translated to ‘good’, in a casual sense.

Then the particular grammar for this post: 訳ではない. This usually translates to ‘not necessarily’, ‘is not the case’ or ‘is not true that’. It can help to think of it as leading onto something else much of the time. For example ‘it’s not necessarily the case that X, but…’ or ‘it’s not that, but…’.

So in the example above, we might translate it as:

Not all black people are good at singing.

‘(Some are actually not good at singing!)’ Is implied from the use of わけではない. Obviously the sales employee was joking around. They evidently associate black people with singing!

Some more examples:

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Intermediate

Comments

5 responses to “Not Necessarily – 訳ではない”

Anonymous

July 11, 2011

日本語を勉強しないとだめ訳ではなくて、勉強したいのだよ。:)

Reply
1. Gakuranman
  
  July 12, 2011
  
  Hmm, not quite sure what you’re trying to say here – it made sense up to しないと though! Let me know and I’ll try to correct it :).
  
  Reply
  1. Philip Nelson
    
    May 17, 2013
    
    I think Anonymous is trying to say that “studying Japanese is not impossible, I want to study (it).” However, when translated into Japanese it comes out weird.
    
    You could say　日本語を勉強するのは無理ではなく、やる気があれば誰でも出来る。Or, if you really want to use 何々訳ではない　you could say 日本語を勉強するのが無理って訳じゃないよ。日本語を勉強してみたい！You just don’t really need the 訳 and it actually makes it sound a little unnatural.
    
    Let me know if I made any mistakes! By the way, any new articles coming soon?
    
    Reply
    1. Michael
      
      May 18, 2013
      
      Nice job! Your Japanese is pretty much spot on, and I think your analysis of what Anon wanted to say is correct now that I took another look, but I think the Japanese you suggested has a slightly difference nuance (although it is grammatically correct!)
      
      I think Anon wanted to say something like this:
      
      ‘I don’t study Japanese because I must, I study because I want to!’
      
      That would translate to something like:
      
      日本語の勉強はしないとだめな訳ではなくて、したいからやっているんだ。
      
      In Anon’s original sentence, changing it thusly would also be sufficient:
      
      日本語を勉強しないとだめな訳ではなくて、勉強したいんだよ。
      
      New articles in the works!
      
      Reply
      1. Philip Nelson
        
        May 20, 2013
        
        あっ、なるほど！
        
        That translation went completely over my head.
        
        Thanks!

Not Necessarily – 訳ではない

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5 responses to “Not Necessarily – 訳ではない”

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