1

すると、士道が話を切り出すより早く、焦れたように三人が声を発してきた。 「……で、一体何の用なワケ？こんな手紙で呼び出すなんて」

Context: In the name of 士道, a letter was sent to 亜衣, one of 士道’s classmates, telling her (亜衣) to go alone to meet 士道 in a cafe. But it turned out that 亜衣 went there in company with her friends. One of the friends questioned 士道 what he asked them out for.

Hi. What function does the なワケ add to the sentence? It seems that 一体何の用？is enough to express the intended meaning.

Thank you.

chino alpha
  • 4,071
  • 1
  • 6
  • 12
  • Just to clarify, you are asking about the inclusion of the word わけ, right? Or are you asking why わけ is written in katakana when it is usually written in hiragana? Or both? – kandyman Oct 09 '20 at 18:49
  • @kandyman Hi. I’m just asking about the function of the わけ at the end of the sentence. I’m not particularly interested in the latter. – chino alpha Oct 10 '20 at 13:12

1 Answers1

5

わけ can mark a reason. If used in a question, "～わけ?" can be used to seek a reason. In other words, the function of わけ in this sentence is roughly the same as explanatory-の used to seek clarification, and you probably know how important this の is in Japanese. The sentence in question is interchangeable with "一体何の用なの?", but as compared with の, わけ is more explicit and sometimes accusatory.

naruto
  • 285,549
  • 12
  • 305
  • 582