Hey guys, I'm currently trying to learn Japanese, and so I'm working on these practice exercises. The phrase I'm not able to translate is:

okane ga naku natta kara desu.

I don't understand what naku natta means. I think naku means to cry and natta is the past tense of naru. But thats as far as I can think up. I would definitely appreciate any help. Thanks in advance Mina.

"naku natta" is the past tense form of "naku naru", and "naku" is the form of "nai" which makes it modify the next word, so when strung with "naru", the complete phrase means roughly "to become nai" or "to become non-existant". In this context, the complete sentence means roughly "because I'm out of money". Hopefully someone more eloquent than I can clarify >_>

.....I think there are Japanese classes in this country. Maybe you should go to one of them.


And I have no idea what that is unless you give me the Japanese character, not the English pronunciation of the Japanese word.

Well, Okane ga Nai is like 'no money'. It's also a yaoi about this kid who has no money.

Last edited by ares6 at 9:54 am, Jun 15 2007

________________
Life, what would it be without so much wrongs and rights?


Star Trek XI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZiR-NETDr0

i cant be sure but if that is the true romaji what was givin to you then that means something on the lines of

Because I used all of my money (literally it means because my money is all gone).

________________
本当のラクダ

"The point is that good deeds were done and we were nearby" - the idiotic Red Mage

It's exactly like haneko said.
Just by looking at the word in context we are able to tell what it means even without the kanji.

In this context, naku doesn't mean cry. It's the word "naku naru".

Naku comes from the word "nai". If you remember your lessons, i-adjectives that are compounded with the verb "naru" (to become), lose their -i and is replaced with a -ku, thus, "nai" becomes "naku". so literally, just like haneko said, naku naru means "to become non-existent", and is better translated as "to run out of"

I thought nai was a verb, so can it be used like an adjective?
Thanks again for all the help. I just don't understand how it can be used as an adjective.

"nai" is also an i-adjective. I'm quite positive about that.^^

Thanks again for all the help guys.

I lost my money
The money was lost

and the above sentences made by our fellow peers is also right, but we don't know the context so we can't tell exactly which one it is

( sorry i posted a lil late kek )

________________
- マリア様がみてる -