Friday 28 August 2015

て form - What does しまおう mean?



~おう means "let's do something", while てしまう seems to mean completion of an action (A dictionary of basic japanese grammar). In Nihongo so-matome n3 there is this example: 今日は飲んじゃおう! which they translate to I'm going to have a drink!. What exactly does ~てしまおう mean?



I've seen some google results for this question, but they were on reddit and few other websites I can't access from this network.



Answer



The te-form is used for stringing verbs together to combine their meanings:



飲[む]{L} + しまう→飲[んで]{LL} + しまう→飲んでしまう



しまう usually means "to complete something", but what it actually means depends on context. In an answer to an earlier question, its combined meaning with 飲む is explained as "drinking without thinking about consequences". An example of 〜しまう meaning "to complete something" (from naruto's comment):



賞味期限が明日だから、今日飲んでしまおう
It'll expire soon, so better drink it all today




The volitional form is used to mean things like will, invitation, doubt or presumption. Here, しまう is conjugated to the volitional form and because the sentence starts 「今日は」, you can guess that it means the speaker's will to do something.



飲んでしま[う]{L}→飲んでしま[おう]{LL}



If you view 飲んでしまう as "drink unresponsibly", then 飲んでしまおう will become "I'll drink unresponsibly/anyway".


For comparison, volitional without 〜しまう:



飲[む]{L}→飲[もう]{LL} (I'll drink, let's drink)




In Japanese, te-form + aux is often contracted when it connects to frequently used auxiliary verbs like 〜しまう or 〜いる. 飲ん[でしま]{LLL}う becomes 飲ん[じゃ]{LL}う and 言って[い]{L}る becomes 言ってる. The contracted form conjugates to the volitional form just like the longer one.



飲ん[でしま]{LL}おう↔飲ん[じゃ]{LL}おう



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