Japanese with Manga

Don't reveal it with 〜てはだめだ

Grammar Explanation: Must not do with 〜てはだめだ

Manga panel from ご注文はうさぎですか？ showing example of Don't reveal it with 〜てはだめだ.
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While telling ghost stories at night, Rize relays the tale from her childhood, of a frightened servant who felt she was being watched while walking home one night.

リゼ:
「犯人(はんにん)はホフク前進(ぜんしん)の練習(れんしゅう)をしていた私(わたし)だ」
“I was the culprit. I was practicing crawling on my stomach.”
◯:
「バラしちゃだめじゃん！！」
“You shouldn't reveal it!”

Key Points

1バラしちゃだめ means the culprit should not be revealed
  • バラす means revealing a secret or giving something away. The others object because Rize has disclosed that she was the figure in the ghost story.
  • バラしてはだめ contracts to バラしちゃだめ in casual speech.
2じゃん adds an exasperated reminder
  • じゃん contracts じゃない and has the force of “you know you shouldn’t!” rather than adding a second prohibition.
3犯人(はんにん)は…私(わたし)だ identifies the culprit
  • The sentence puts 犯人(はんにん) forward as the topic, then identifies it as the speaker. していた describes what she was doing at the time.

Vocabulary

(Criminal)

犯人(はんにん) means the culprit or person who committed a crime.

(Practice)

練習(れんしゅう) means practice or rehearsal done to improve a skill or performance.

(I)

私(わたし) means “I” or “me”. It is the standard first-person pronoun in polite speech and is also common in casual speech among women.

See Also

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