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In a couple of anime I watched (namely, Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru and Fuufu Ijou, Koibito Miman) there is a gyaru character, and I noticed they speak often using なんだけど and similar expressions as sentence ending, like:

もう最悪なんだけど

ちょっとどうしたの？暑いんだけど

見てほしかったんじゃないのかよって何あの言い方？ありえないんですけど

I tried looking around for some info about this, but I could find anything relevant beside some translation that tries to express it as "damn" or something similar, which backs my feeling that it adds emphasis.

I'm wondering if it's something like akin to other role languages, maybe a way to emphatize what's being said and stress the gyaru character of the speaker, but I'm not sure if there is something more.

Mauro
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1 Answers1

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It is not wrong to think some of the phrases as typically gyaru-ish, but the kind of ending けど can be used in general to make a statement indirect (終助詞#1 here).

Implied feelings depend on the meaning/context, but complaint/grudge is one of the typical ones, as all of your examples and the following questions.

Taking an example from the first link,

いいですけど

is more or less equivalent to

It's okay, but...

What is suppressed in '...' depends on context (I'm not happy, It's not perfect etc.). I guess saying 'but' emphatically does not really work. In Japanese, using けど a bit strongly would suggest that some complaints are omitted, by which 'complaint' aspect of the sentence is emphasized than in いいです, which can be neutral.

That said, in the sentences of the question, けど means almost nothing. That is, ありえないんですけど is mostly the same as saying ありえない, which is already a complaint. In this sense, けど (of this usage) is simply an ending particle used (more) by younger people.

sundowner
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  • If it means almost nothing, why it's added? Does it have some implication, or maybe it's just a quirk to give the character more depth? – Mauro Jan 11 '23 at 12:30
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    @Mauro I think partially it's become just common to add it, as I mentioned in the last sentence. Another typical Gyaru phrase is うけるんですけど, which can be うけるー. In real life, people aged around 15-20+, esp. girls, commonly use this kind (not obviously making things indirect) of けど , but you are expected NOT to use them when you get mature enough. In business settings, it is considered inappropriate. So, in anime, those けど are used, just reflecting the real usage. – sundowner Jan 11 '23 at 12:39