Japanese with Manga

Finished helping somehow with なんとか

Vocabulary Explanation: Something, nothing, and anything with question words

Manga panel from ハクメイとミコチ showing example of Finished helping somehow with なんとか.
ハクメイとミコチ » Volume 1 » Page 34

Hakumei is waiting in town. Mikochi joins her and apologizes for being late.

ハクメイ:
「屋台(やたい)料理(りょうり)の手(て)伝(つだ)い終(お)わったのか　ミコチ」
“So you're done helping with the stall food, Mikochi?”
ミコチ:
「なんとかね…」
“Somehow, yeah...”

Key Points

1なんとかね… means “somehow, yeah…”
  • なんとか is getting something done one way or another, usually with some struggle. Mikochi leaves off the verb. The full answer is なんとか終(お)わった, “I got it finished somehow”.
  • It’s a yes, with a hint that the job wasn’t easy. The trailing … sounds tired, and she’s late.
2Sentence-final ね softens the reply
  • A bare なんとか would sound clipped. With ね, it comes out as a relaxed “yeah, somehow”.
3終(お)わったのか checks a guess
  • Mikochi has shown up, so Hakumei guesses the job is over. のか asks her to confirm it. It’s a plainer, somewhat masculine form of の？, and it suits Hakumei’s boyish speech.
  • The past 終(お)わった is about completion, “are you done?”, not about when it ended.
4手(て)伝(つだ)い is a noun here
  • 屋台(やたい)料理(りょうり)の手(て)伝(つだ)い is “help with the stall food”. The の shows that 手(て)伝(つだ)い is a noun, not the verb stem in a compound like 手(て)伝(つだ)い終(お)わる.
  • Hakumei drops the particle after it. The fuller sentence is 手(て)伝(つだ)いは終(お)わったのか.
5屋台(やたい)料理(りょうり) is food from street stalls
  • 屋台(やたい) is a food stall, and 料理(りょうり) is cooking or a dish.

Vocabulary

(To end)

終(お)わる is for something to come to an end. After a verb stem, it means to finish doing it.

(Somehow)

なんとか describes managing something one way or another. なんとかする means to do something about a problem.

See Also

ハクメイとミコチ © its respective creators. It is used here for educational commentary.