Worth the effort to build a garden with 〜甲斐がある
Grammar Explanation: Worth it with 〜甲斐がある
A customer asks Akari to stop the gondola as she sees a house with a fantastic flower garden. The customer asks if it’s a special place, to which Alicia explains it’s an ordinary house. She says the flower bed and gardening are a barometer to measure the caliber of the woman of the household.
- アリシア:
- 「ネオ・ヴェネツィアの街中は残念ながら自然の緑が少ないですから」
- “Since there's regrettably little natural greenery in the city of Neo-Venezia...”
- 「きっと奥様方もがんばり甲斐があるんでしょうね」
- “...surely the housewives also find it worth the effort.”
- Literal: “Surely the ladies also have worth in working hard.”
- “Since there's regrettably little natural greenery in the city of Neo-Venezia...”
Key Points
1がんばり甲斐がある = “the effort pays off / it feels worth working hard”
- Here, がんばり甲斐がある means the housewives can feel their hard work is rewarded by the beautiful result.
- Alicia is not saying effort is good in the abstract; she means gardening here has a visible payoff because the flowers stand out in a city with little greenery.
2んでしょうね softens the statement into a polite inference
- んでしょう shows Alicia is making a gentle inference, not stating a hard fact.
- ね invites shared agreement with the listener: “I imagine that must be true, don’t you think?”
- Together, があるんでしょうね gives the line a warm, reflective tone that fits Alicia’s polite speech.
Vocabulary
奥様 (Madam)
奥様 is a term of respect primarily used to refer to another person’s wife. It is also used to address a female head of a household or the proprietress of a shop or store. In more casual contexts, the term 奥さん is used, and 奥様 is not used to refer to one’s own wife.
自然 (Nature)
自然 means nature, naturalness, or something happening naturally. It points to what is so of itself, without forcing.
See Also
- Grammar: Marking the subject with が
- Grammar: Marking the topic with は and も
- Kanji: Forms and appearances with 様
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