ほら財布だ。

Sentence Discussions Japanese
#1
English Translation

Here’s my wallet.

ほら has the connotation of “look”, right?

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#2

@ericaw
Another interesting question that I have never logically thought about as a native speaker!

ほら has at least three usages:

  1. As you explained, “look!” in order to get attention from the listener.

  2. “Here you go” when you hand over something to the listener.

  3. “Told you!” when the speaker’s projection is right.

Here are examples of the three.

ほら、空を見てごらん。流れ星だよ。 = Look! Look up the sky! It’s a shooting star!

ほら、これが証拠の資料だよ。= Here you go! This document proves it.

ほら、やっぱりお皿を落としたじゃないか。だから気をつけろと言ったんだ。= Told you! I thought you would drop the plate, and it really happened. That’s why I said “be careful”.

I guess the author of the Japanese sentence meant it in the second way. But the problem is, the Japanese sentence is vague. It could mean either

Look, that’s a wallet! — you discover the wallet from a hidden place.

Here you go. You can look into my wallet if you want. I have nothing to hide.

Told you! The correct answer of the quiz is “wallet”!

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