Japanese with Manga

Diving into the river with 飛びこむ

Vocabulary Explanation: Words ending in 込む

Manga panel from 俺物語!! showing example of Diving into the river with 飛びこむ.
俺物語!! » Volume 1 » Page 114

Takeo and Sunakawa meet Yamato at the park. Yamato sees that Takeo is soaked. Sunakawa explains that they saved a child from drowning.

大和(やまと):
「え！？…　砂川(すなかわ)くんはあんまり濡(ぬ)れてないね」
“Huh?!... You're not that wet, Sunakawa.”
砂川(すなかわ):
「オレは受(う)け渡(わた)ししただけだから」
“I just did the handoff, is all.”
「こいつは飛(と)びこんだから」
“This guy dived right in.”

Key Points

1飛(と)びこむ = “to dive or jump into”
  • 飛(と)ぶ means “jump” or “fly”. 込(こ)む adds inward motion, so the compound describes Takeo entering the river in a jump.
  • Sunakawa omits the destination because the panel makes the river clear. If he named it, he would use に: 川(かわ)に飛(と)びこむ.
  • The speaker gives no information about Takeo’s posture. Here, “dive” means entering the water in a jump.
2飛(と)びこんだ is the plain past form
  • 飛(と)びこむ is a godan verb ending in む, so its plain past changes む to んだ: 飛(と)びこむ → 飛(と)びこんだ.
3オレは…だけ and こいつは… contrast their roles
  • Sunakawa uses は to set his role against Takeo’s: オレは… / こいつは….
  • With だけ, Sunakawa limits his role to the handoff. Takeo entered the river.
  • こいつ is a rough, casual way to say “this guy”. It suits Sunakawa’s familiar way of referring to Takeo.
4Sunakawa uses から for two reasons
  • Sunakawa ends both remarks with から: he stayed drier because he handled the handoff, and Takeo got soaked because he jumped in.
  • In English, we can omit the repeated “because”: “I just did the handoff, is all. This guy dived right in.”
5あんまり〜ない means “not very”
  • Yamato’s あんまり濡(ぬ)れてない means “not very wet”. 濡(ぬ)れてない is the spoken form of 濡(ぬ)れていない.
  • Yamato uses final ね to ask Sunakawa to confirm what she sees.

See Also

俺物語!! © its respective creators. It is used here for educational commentary.