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I came across a sentence in a manga I'm reading but I'm not sure exactly what these words mean. The sentence reads as follows:

点滴ってことは...栄養が足りてなかったってことか？

Context: A guy's friend is in the hospital and asks this after a nurse explains the treatment they're giving to his friend.

My translation was:

"The intravenous drip means she wasn't getting enough nutrition?"

I used Google translate to get an idea of what it said but I really want to understand the role that ってことは and ってことか play here.

Eddie Kal
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leosan
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1 Answers1

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Essentially the linked answer answers the question, it is an instance of 'AということはBということか？'='(I suppose) The fact A should mean another fact B', where という is contracted to って.

The twist may be that the predicate is implicit after 点滴.

The sentence can be

  • （彼が）点滴（をしている）ってことは…栄養が足りてなかったってことか?

What can be dropped depends on contexts. Some other examples:

  • Macってことは, Safariか If he is using a Mac, then it is likely that he is using Safari. (Context: The speaker tries to guess which browser is being used, upon knowing which OS the user is using.)

  • 太郎が店番ってことは、花子は留守か I see Taro at the register, so Hanko is not at home. (Context: The speaker knows Hanako is usually sitting at the register and that Taro takes over when she is not available; here the first part and the second part have different subjects, so 太郎が can't be omitted).

sundowner
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