A cheap-looking coat with 〜っぽい
Grammar Explanation: Kind of like with 〜っぽい
Hayate’s parents have left him with a 150-million-yen debt, and the yakuza are after him. Desperate, he decides to kidnap a girl he finds alone in a park on Christmas Eve. She tells him she ran out of a party and forgot her coat, and she’s shivering. Hayate drapes his own coat over her, then scolds himself for going soft on the girl he means to kidnap.
- ナギ:
- 「安っぽいコートだな。」
- “What a cheap-looking coat.”
Key Points
- 安っぽい is the stem of 安い, “cheap”, plus っぽい. It means something looks or feels cheap: tacky, flimsy, or poorly made.
- 安っぽい isn’t the same as 安い. 安いコート is a coat with a low price. 安っぽいコート is one that gives a cheap impression, whatever it cost.
- Like other っぽい words, it’s an ordinary い-adjective. It goes straight before a noun with no な, as in 安っぽいコート.
- だ states the judgment, and な turns it into a remark Nagi makes half to herself. だな sounds blunt and casual, and here it sounds a little bossy.
- Nagi talks this way throughout the series. Coming from a young girl, the blunt tone makes the insult sting more.
Vocabulary
安っぽい (Cheap-looking)
安っぽい describes something that looks or feels cheap, such as flimsy clothes or a tacky decoration. It’s about the impression something gives, not its price.
安い (Cheap)
安い means cheap or low in price.
っぽい (-ish)
っぽい follows a word to say something seems like it or tends toward it.
コート (Coat)
コート is a coat worn over other clothes. It also means a court for sports such as tennis or basketball.
See Also
- Grammar: Kind of like with 〜っぽい
- Grammar: The copula だ
- Kanji: Peace and ease with 安