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Reading "プラチナデータ" by 東野圭吾.

Not clear on the meaning of:

"俺、何度も彼女を殺しそうになったもんな" -

"I often almost killed her ... (monna?)"

What is "monna"? I suppose "mono nara" ("if that thing"), but then I don't understand the whole sentence - is it "If I often almost killed her"?

Makoto
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Swalbol
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4 Answers4

4

More than anything, it is a colloquial way of adding the nuance of "retrospective confession or boasting" in my own words.

3

I think that it comes from the grammar form ～もの + だ. Which when changed to casual becomes もんだ which then you could add a な to.

ものです-> もんだ->もんだな->もんな

I think this may be a usage of 'reason/explanation' version of ～もの, perhaps in a sentence before or after the character is talking about why he had often almost killed her?

ishikun
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    nope, the 丁寧語 of なったもんな is なりましたもんな, not なったものですな. This is a sentence ending particle, not a formal noun. – dainichi Oct 23 '13 at 07:48
  • I'm not really sure what your comment is in reference to, but what I'm trying to explain is that the もんな from the poster's question comes from もの　and な.

    I edited the question so hopefully that is more clear

     – ishikun Oct 23 '13 at 08:31
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    It's correct that it comes from もの+な, but ものです is not relevant. – dainichi Oct 23 '13 at 09:41
  • I apologize if it was confusing, I was only using the words 'ものです' as a reference to that grammar structure as explained in the link. I've changed it to もの＋だ to make it even clearer. – ishikun Oct 23 '13 at 09:53
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    @ishikun Let me try and see if I can get it right: a formal noun (形式名詞) is like a noun in form, so it can turn the clause before it into a relative clause and be followed by だ. (As a formal noun, もの is a nominalizer.) But since this is the sentence final particle (終助詞), it doesn't act like a noun, and you can't put だ after it any more than you can put だ after よね. (Plus, it can come after だ, something no noun can do.) –  Oct 23 '13 at 11:42
  • (reminded me of this thread... http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/11703/making-sense-of-%E3%82%82%E3%82%93) –  Oct 23 '13 at 15:29
  • @snailboat Ahh I kind of get what you mean :D. I'm still confused though, is it not the usage of ものだ　as in the second one on this page – ishikun Oct 25 '13 at 01:17
  • @snailboat But actually this usage right? – ishikun Oct 25 '13 at 01:25
  • @ishikun. It is not the second usage on the first page you link to. もの in ものだ is a formal noun, here we are discussing a sentence final particle. Incidentally, I do not agree with that page that the use of ものだ is for a "reason, justification, or excuse", so I think they are also confusing the 2 usages. ものだ is explained here: http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/thsrs/17282/m0u/ – dainichi Oct 25 '13 at 02:06
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It's a variation of entry 2イ here:

http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/219750/m0u/

As Goo says, it's basically an exclamatory way to state a reason for something, 「詠嘆の意をこめて理由を表す」. I don't have the context in this case, but I would say that in most cases the meaning is approximately the same as

俺、何度も彼女を殺しそうになったからな

and I would give the English translation as roughly

I did almost kill her several times, didn't I...

dainichi
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  • Thanks for the replies! This sentence is uttered by a character being interrogated by the police, boasting about his "prowesses" with his 彼女 using a special device called a "電トリ ". I would probably go with "もんな" -> "からな", since the character is not offering any reason other than boasting he is really proud of himself... – Swalbol Oct 24 '13 at 07:19
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It is similar to "right ?" Used by men The equivalent used by women would be もんね

相手に自分の言ったことへの同意や、肯定を求める言い方です。 男性の言い方です。 女性であれば「〜もんね 」です。

Exemples

今日って寒いもんな。 It's cold today, right ?

Source: https://hinative.com/ja/questions/1911840

Makoto
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  • 相手に自分の言ったことへの同意や、肯定を求める言い方です。 男性の言い方です。 女性であれば「〜もんね 」です。 今日って寒いもんな。 <- When you copy from another page, please always include the source, and clearly show which part of your answer is citation and which is your original. – chocolate Dec 29 '20 at 16:22
  • Hi, you are right, I have thus updated the answer – Makoto Dec 29 '20 at 16:23