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The following sentence was translated in the following ways:

窓を開けたままで寝るんじゃなかった。
I shouldn't have slept with the window open.
I regret (that) I was sleeping with the window open.

But why does ～んじゃなかった make the meaning "I shouldn't have slept" rather than "I hadn't been sleeping"?

cypher
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  • I would've thought it was a rhetorical question as in "Was it not the case that I slept with the window open?" – Flaw Apr 26 '12 at 01:34
  • @Flaw Wouldn't that be ・・・寝たんじゃない？ – ジョン Apr 26 '12 at 02:12
  • @ジョン I suppose. Which is why it struck me as odd because I already had some form of prejudgement when reading the sentence. – Flaw Apr 26 '12 at 02:31
  • The meaning is accurate as translated. But I can't answer "why" and I'm having trouble finding it in J-J dictionaries. – Hyperworm Apr 26 '12 at 12:18

1 Answers1

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In your example, your ～寝【ね】るんじゃなかった is a shortened form of ～寝【ね】ることではなかった.

～Vことだ is a common command form, and ～Vことではない is used by extension as a form of prohibition. In your example, the following transformations have occurred:

  • ではない → じゃない
  • こと → の → ん

In this case, the speaker is basically scolding herself because she should've known not to sleep with the window open.

rintaun
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    The only part that does not feel very intuitive to me is こと→の. – Flaw Apr 26 '12 at 13:19
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    @Flaw I would vouch for the こと→の. It's a common contraction. (hoping that contraction is the right word here) – ジョン Apr 26 '12 at 13:44
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    @ジョン It's easy to see that もの→もん and の→ん. But こと→の seems to be a different thing altogether. – Flaw Apr 26 '12 at 13:46
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    @Flaw Both こと and の are nominalizers, so it's not exactly fair to call it a "transformation." See http://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/1395/384 -- note that there is some disagreement on ことだ⇔のだ in the comments of the accepted answer – rintaun Apr 26 '12 at 13:47
  • Though the commanding ことだ seems to be a different case than what they're discussing. – rintaun Apr 26 '12 at 13:54
  • @Flaw I'm doubting myself now but is that not exactly what happens when, for eg, -ことができる becomes -のができる? – ジョン Apr 26 '12 at 17:13
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    「こと→の ... a common contraction」ということはできないと思います。「～～することだ。」「～～するんだ。」は、両方とも「～しろ」のような意味で使えますが、意味・ニュアンスが違います（「～することだ」は命令というより警告に近いと思います）し、そもそも、後悔するときに、「Ｖるんじゃなかった」は言いますが、「Ｖることではなかった」とは言いません。 – chocolate May 27 '18 at 00:47