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I'm reading a manga and I found that phrase. What is it supposed to mean? Is it some kind of informal way to speak?

This is the full sentence:

男でもいけるもんだなって思ってさ

hippietrail
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Renji
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1 Answers1

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There are several things here.

  • もん is colloquial for もの
  • だ is the usual copula
  • な here is the variation of ね usually used to imply wondering or wishfulness. Sometimes written as なあ or なぁ.
  • って can be thought of as contraction of と言う, though it can mean other things as well.

So, without knowing the context (いける may mean several things), the whole phrase could be translated as:

"Being a guy is not too bad either, you know. That's what I think, anyway."

Igor Skochinsky
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    Well, that certainly is pretty complicated. Thanks a lot. Can you elaborate a bit more on the "もの" part, though? I don't really understand how it's used and its meaning in the sentence. Is it kinda "**the fact** of being a guy"? – Renji Oct 06 '13 at 13:23
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    It deserves its own question, but check out [this](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/11704/3295) answer. – Igor Skochinsky Oct 06 '13 at 13:57
  • P.S. actually now that I look at it, I think here it may actually be the noun `物` (=thing/concept/fact), and not the particle もの. – Igor Skochinsky Oct 06 '13 at 14:24
  • Even if it's もん? Can the noun 物 be contracted? – Renji Oct 06 '13 at 20:35
  • How could you translate that sentence without any context? I could not at all. It could mean too many completely different things. –  Mar 21 '14 at 00:00