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I'm watching a Mario RPG translation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRBRLmhFy-4

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What I think I understand so far is: ながい おつきあいなだけに、= "Given that I've known you a long time,"

Question 1: なにがあったか = "What happened..."

I think this is correct? However, I have been reading about か and I cannot understand what it's function is here. I would like to know its purpose please.

Question 2: 気付いてしまいました! = "...I realize!" or "...now I realize!"

I am very unsure about my translation of this part. I think 気づいて is て form. しまいました is confusing to me though. Does しま = polite affirmative する? Also いました, I'm not sure about this. Is this supposed to be 今 past tense or いる past tense?

Eddie Kal
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Grumpy Bread
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    This question and discussion should help you with the Vて+しまう construction (conjugated to Vて+しまいました in your question): https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/36672/vてしまう-他の使い方がある – henreetee May 26 '21 at 15:48

1 Answers1

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Yes, this 何があったか is a noun clause meaning "what happened". か can form something called an embedded question. See: Usage of か after a clause?

気づいてしまいました is made of the te-form of 気づく and the polite-past form of the subsidiary verb しまう. Here, this しまう describes 気づく was an unintended and possibly-undesirable action. Perhaps you can use "to happen to" in this case. If you are new to しまう, please take the time to learn about it. It's very important and has various usages.

なにがあったか気づいてしまいました!
I happened to notice what happened!

naruto
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  • Another very helpful reply from Naruto, thank you! しまう is a new concept to me and I found this guide along with the post linked by Henreetee(thank you) to help me get started. I'm posting it here to help anyone else in the future: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/unintended – Grumpy Bread May 27 '21 at 01:46