強がる usage and meaning

Question

~がる is used to describe third person's feeling but today I found this word "強がる私" I don't know why　強がる is used with first person like　私.

Is it because the speaker speaks in other point of view ?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 07 '19 at 04:30

If there is a reason, you can safely use がる for a first-person subject, because the basic meaning of がる is "to show signs/indications of ～". See:

Here 強がる is basically a lexicalized verb and thus has a negative overtone, but this がる still means "to show signs", and there is no reason you cannot use it with a first-person subject.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 05 '19 at 18:03

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強がる is a word per se, meaning "to pretend to be tough"; I think it can be used also for first person.

answered Dec 05 '19 at 18:03

Mauro

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Yeah. I’m not sure about that. I did searched Google it says 強そうなふりをする. I don’t know if it is separated from ~がる form. – Kiw Dec 05 '19 at 18:27
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@Kiw, what do you mean by "separated from ~がる form"? 強そうなふりをする is another way of saying 強がる or "to pretend to be tough, to put on a show of being strong". – Eiríkr Útlendi Dec 05 '19 at 19:33
@EiríkrÚtlendi I think they're confused because 強がる implies that you are not actually 強い, whereas 欲しがる does not imply that you are not 欲しい. In fact, dictionaries have 強そうなふりをする for 強がる, but 欲しそうなようすをする for 欲しがる. – Angelos Dec 05 '19 at 22:23
強そうなふりをする agrees with Jisho's definition; Weblio says 強いことを自慢する, which does seem to point at it being usable in first person. It also gives ひどく強がる as example, with "of a person, to bluff others" as translation, which doesn't exclude first person usage. In Wareta Ringo, 新世界より ending, 強がって appears and is used (or at least translated) as first person: https://shinsekaiyori.fandom.com/wiki/Wareta_Ringo – Mauro Dec 05 '19 at 23:25
I don’t know if 強がる ( word se ) and Adjい(強い) ＋がるform are the same or they have their own meaning. In Jisho, it says 強そうなふりをする. Is it related to ~がる grammar used to describe third person’s feeling ? (Describe that someone’s feeling strong) Or it’s just a word se that always means “to pretend to be strong” that can be used with every person ? – Kiw Dec 06 '19 at 05:36

強がる usage and meaning

2 Answers2