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髪形だけ父さんに似せてもお前は跡取りになれない

Real son says that to adopted son.

だけ + ～ても confuses me. Does だけ replace は/が or を? If は/が, it would be "Even if only your hairstyle makes you look like dad [...]"/"Even if your hairstyle is enough to make you look like dad [...]" and it would make sense, but if を, it would be "Even if you make only your hairstyle look like dad (dad's hairstyle) [...]" and "only" would make it weird, given the rest of the sentence.

Haragurodanshi
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1 Answers1

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In this case, it's を that was replaced by だけ. 似せる is a transitive verb used like this:

お前は髪型を父さんに似せた。

You made your hairstyle resemble Dad's.

You can change を to だけ:

お前は髪型だけ父さんに似せた。

You made only your hairstyle resemble Dad's.

Thus:

髪形だけ父さんに似せてもお前は跡取りになれない。

Even if you make only your hairstyle resemble Dad's, you can't become the heir.
→ Copying only Dad's hairstyle won't make you the heir (i.e., you differ too much from Dad in other aspects).

naruto
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  • It's ～ても and not just ～て that confuses me. I would say "Even if you make your hairstyle" or "If you make only your hairstyle", but not "Even if you make only your hairstyle". I can't explain it. – Haragurodanshi Sep 14 '23 at 02:52
  • @Haragurodanshi Do you understand a sentence like それだけ見ても分からない ("Seeing it alone won't help you understand")? – naruto Sep 14 '23 at 09:18
  • Yes, but it's like you say "Even if you see only that (you don't exaggerate), you won't understand", like I should see nothing to understand, but I choose to risk seeing that anyway, only that. "Even if you make only your hairstyle" makes me naturally think that A (real son) is thinking that B (adopted son) is trying not to exaggerate to look like his father, but has done too much anyway and should have done less. – Haragurodanshi Sep 14 '23 at 22:56
  • It's も ("even") that changes the meaning. If it weren't there, I would understand what you mean. – Haragurodanshi Sep 14 '23 at 23:06
  • @Haragurodanshi Hmm, so looks like ても is the real issue here. What dou think is the literal-yet-correct translation of それだけ見ても分からない? "Even if you look at it alone" doesn't work? – naruto Sep 14 '23 at 23:12
  • My native language is not English. Anyway, it should be "Even if you look only at it/that, you won't understand". "Even if you look at it/that alone [...]" is fine too, but "alone" can also mean "without company" here. However, I think I understand why it's written in that way and it's correct in English too. The implicit part is different from mine, in that case: it's like "If you do only X, you can't become the heir, if you do only Y, you can't become the heir, even if you make only your hairstyle look like dad's, you can't become the heir". That's why "even" is there, am I right? – Haragurodanshi Sep 15 '23 at 01:57
  • How are それだけ見て分からない and それだけ見ても分からない different to you? – Haragurodanshi Sep 15 '23 at 02:19
  • @Haragurodanshi それだけ見てわからない = "Even after seeing that many things, you didn't understand!"; それだけ見てもわからない = "Seeing only that won't make me understand". – naruto Sep 15 '23 at 02:26
  • I just think も in Japanese is used differently from "also"/"even" in English then. If you add "even" to the latter, it means something else, it's an addition to something else: "Seeing only X won't make me understand, seeing only Y won't make me understand, even seeing only that won't make me understand", "[...] even seeing only that won't make me understand". "Seeing only that" without "even" is not an addition. Do you understand what I mean? – Haragurodanshi Sep 15 '23 at 03:14
  • @Haragurodanshi Both て and ても have various usages, and ても is not necessary "て+も". ても is ても, which is translated like "even if", "even though", and several other ways. Anyway, feel free to edit my answer if my literal translations are confusing to you. – naruto Sep 15 '23 at 04:50