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I have a sentence in a book that goes like 甘い匂いのするまっきいろな花です。It is a kids book, so everything is in kana. I'm having trouble figuring out the bolded part. It talks about a dandelion in the context, so I assume that きいろ is 黄色(yellow), what is this (まっ) then?

Google suggests that it might be following 甘い匂いのする真っ黄色な花です。and translates this (真っ) part as "straight". Can someone explain how this truncation happens?

Also, where to look up the grammar for "のする"?

Vasili Sviridov
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1 Answers1

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まっ◯◯ is indeed 真っ, but it does not exactly mean straight. It can mean straight when you use it as 真っ直ぐ, but that's because of the meaning of すぐ. 真っ emphasizes the word that it's connected to. If you look at the meaning of 真 by itself, like "true," then it's a little clearer. So 真っすぐ means that it's "really" straight. まっきいろ would be "really" yellow, or like a pure yellow. It connects to some other words similarly, like 真{ま}っ赤{か}, 真{ま}っ裸{ぱだか}, 真{ま}っ白{しろ}い, etc.

The issue of の is a separate issue, but you should be able to find it in most grammar references, as well as in some questions on this site, like here and in the other questions linked in it.

chocolate
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  • So, the translation would be "It is a really yellow flower that smells sweet"? – Vasili Sviridov Jan 30 '13 at 12:38
  • yes, something like that – ssb Jan 30 '13 at 12:44
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    @ssb: Does 'ssb' stand for "Super Smash Bros."? Cause that's all I can think about when I reading your name. – istrasci Jan 30 '13 at 15:40
  • it did back when i crated my first 'serious' online name when I was like 11 ('SSB' was part of it), and it just kind of stuck around because everyone referred to me as ssb. Nowadays I don't attach that meaning to it but etymologically, yes indeed. – ssb Jan 30 '13 at 16:23
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    And 真っ青 is まっさお (sic.), which is really not intuitive... – Earthliŋ Jan 30 '13 at 22:55