Japanese Grammar - How to properly use and understand ～きり pattern?

How to properly use and understand ～きり pattern?

padcsantos – June 17, 2017, 12:38 pm

Hi everyone! While I've been slowly studying the materials on the advanced course but, there is this one grammar at chapter 13 that I'm really getting difficulty to understand. It's the ～きり phrase.

I will paste here the context of that particular sentence.

What are the factors and proper usage of ～きり? Also, what I'm really confused is it's attached to 思い which is literally means thoughts, think...

それなら思いっきり暑いことやらない？
In that case, why don't we do the hottest possible thing?

How to properly use and understand ～きり pattern?

Nick Hoyt – June 17, 2017, 7:52 pm

It's better to think of "思いっきり" as one set phrase instead of breaking it down into two separate parts and trying to understand them individually.

思いっきり usually adds a meaning of "going all out" or "doing something at 100%" to the the action in the sentence.

So the normal phrase of 暑いことやらない would mean "why don't we do a hot thing?" and by adding 思いっきり in front of it, the phrase it changes to "why don't we do the hottest possible thing?"

Hope that helps.

How to properly use and understand ～きり pattern?

Nick Hoyt – June 17, 2017, 7:55 pm

I should add that just using [Noun + きり/っきり] has a different meaning of "only, just, since"

二人っきりで話をしたいです would mean "I want to talk, just us two."

How to properly use and understand ～きり pattern?

padcsantos – June 19, 2017, 1:22 pm

I guess I was trying to translate them literally word for word since there was a kiri intended for just and the kanji meaning of omou.

Thanks! That really clears a lot of things for that phrase!

How to properly use and understand ～きり pattern?

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How to properly use and understand ～きり pattern?

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