12

Found in this tweet:

先が気になる

I always have to do a double check with 先 because the possible meanings can be very opposite one another.

I've also found other tweets with the same hashtag, like this.

先が気になって仕方ない

chocolate
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SupriseMechanics
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2 Answers2

19

「先{さき}」 here means "the future", "the future events/developments", etc.

「先が気になる」 therefore means "(I am) curious about the future developments".

Pitch accent is king:

「さき{HL}」 (high-low) refers to a past event. 「先の国会{こっかい}」 ("the last national assembly")

「さき{LH}」 (low-high) refers to a future event all by itself.　「先が気になる」

Native speakers would never say 「先が気になる」 to refer to a past event.

We do say, however, 「さっきのことが気になる。」 with the small っ to refer to a past event. "I am worried/curious about what happened a while ago." Again, that is "high-low".

  • Interestingly, no monolingual dictionary seems to mention the HL pitch for that definition of 先. 新明解, 大辞泉, and NHKアクセント辞典 tend to be pretty good at mentioning when a given definition has a different pitch from the rest so I’m a little surprised that none of them mention the different pitch. BTW it reminds me a little of the HL 右 one hears in legal contexts to mean “above” or “aforementioned” etc. (Also welcome back) – Darius Jahandarie Aug 25 '21 at 15:50
  • Oh shoot, I just missed it, 大辞林 has a note at the very end of their entry! “〔アクセント⑤⑪は[0] [1]〕” – Darius Jahandarie Aug 25 '21 at 15:53
2

Since the topic is TV series, in this case it refers to the future [episodes].

E.g. “(Very) curious about what happens next”

“Can’t help thinking about the next episode”

Igor Skochinsky
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