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I can not understand very well this "～とでもいうのか" found in Dragon Ball.

The context in this: Goku and Frieza begin to fight, and Goku say:

"いいかげんにしろ。。。このクズやろう。。。罪もない者をつぎからつぎへと殺しやがって。。。クリリンまで。。。"

Frieza reply:

"えらそうなことをいいやがって。。。きさまらサイヤ人は罪のないものを殺さなかったとでもいうのか?"

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I found here on japanesestackexchange some topics in which has been discussed about this "～とでもいうのか". Here is stated that is a expression for add emphasis. Here and here it is says that "～とでもいうのか" stands for "or something".

So, which is the correct answer? And, is this translation correct?

"You wouldn't be saying that you saiyan never killed innocent people?"

Daroro814
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2 Answers2

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As you can easily see in your first answer, the sentence-end ～とでも(言うのか)? is used almost as a set expression, and almost always has a fairly accusatory overtone; "Are you really saying ～?" I could not find a perfect explanation of this でも in monolingual dictionaries, so I think you can memorize this as a fixed pattern. But the closest definition in dictionaries was "～ or something like that", as your remaining answer says.

See also:

naruto
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I'll make my answer short, as it doesn't appear you are requesting too much explanation.

There are a few different interpretations of ～とでもいう that are very context dependent. The closest I found to this context would be a Weblio definition found here, namely:

とでもいう　－　as if to say; as if; as though

I would translate it as:

'As if you damn Saiyans never killed any innocents!'

or

'Are you trying to tell me that you damn Saiyans never killed any innocent people!'

or something along those lines.

BJCUAI
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