0

好きになる means fall in love/come to love, but what about 好きになれる? Does it mean "can come to love"? What does 好きになれる mean in this sentence?

先輩と一緒にいられないなら、わたしに誰が好きになれるの嫌だ

enter image description here

Daniel
  • 61
  • 6
  • I believe the latter part of this sentence has some typo. And is this line said by a guy whose first-person pronoun is わたし? – naruto Apr 30 '18 at 22:37
  • @naruto I just checked and that's how it's written. And yes, it's a first person sentence. – Daniel Apr 30 '18 at 22:44
  • There is really nothing between の and 嫌だ (か, question mark, comma, line break, ...)? Maybe can you share the image like this? – naruto Apr 30 '18 at 22:55
  • @naruto I just added a pic. Indeed, the only thing missing in the pic is the 嫌だ that is on the next page. – Daniel Apr 30 '18 at 23:23
  • Okay, now this makes sense to me. (But why did you replace 先輩 with 彼女? I think this 先輩 probably refers to a guy...) – naruto Apr 30 '18 at 23:30
  • because I didn't want it to be ambiguous, in fact senpai refers to the girl from pic related – Daniel Apr 30 '18 at 23:56

1 Answers1

4

先輩と一緒にいられないなら、わたしに誰が好きになれるの？
If I cannot be with Sempai, then who (else) can I fall in love with?

This なれる is potential. This is a rhetorical question which actually implies "Sempai is the only person I can fall in love with." 誰が好き on its own is ambiguous ("who likes" vs "who does someone like"), but in this case it means "who do I like".

嫌だ on the next page should be just a one-word sentence, "No...", "No way", "I hate this (situation)", etc.

naruto
  • 313,860
  • 13
  • 324
  • 625
  • btw the first part of the sentence has 一緒 , doesn't that mean together? – Daniel Apr 30 '18 at 23:58
  • 一緒にいる is to "be (together) with someone" but it's not exactly necessary to have that "together" there in English. – Leebo May 01 '18 at 00:16
  • @naruto oh and the "can't" here means "not have the ability/not be able to do sth" because of the potential form right? 誰が好き you said this is ambiguous but can't it mean "who will fall in love with me" here? or is it impossible? – Daniel May 01 '18 at 00:32
  • @Daniel It's either possibility or ability. "I don't have an ability to fall in love (with someone else)" may be an exaggerated statement, but basically she is so shocked that she feels she will not be in love with anyone else forever. "私 （のこと）を 誰が好きになれるの?" could have meant "who can fall in love with me? (i.e., no one will love me!)" – naruto May 01 '18 at 01:01
  • Thanks you, in the context of the whole story, it doesn't come across as too shocking, though. However, the nuance of the Japanese sentence confuses me a bit. Could that "can" be implying "I don't want"? As if the implication were "I don't want to fall for anyone (else) other than senpai"? I do agree that using "can" rather than "want" is a bit weird. – Daniel May 01 '18 at 01:08
  • @Daniel Sort of, but "I cannot think of any possibility of being in love with someone other than sempai" may be closer. – naruto May 01 '18 at 01:16
  • Then what would someone mean if they said something like, 自分を好きになれる – A.T.A. Jan 19 '23 at 20:59
  • @A.T.A. Such a sentence would make sense in the context of a self-loathing person being able to feel confident about themselves. – naruto Jan 20 '23 at 05:03
  • @naruto Who would 自分 refer to if a sentence like, "古の呪文よりも君の声で強くなれるの" came before it? – A.T.A. Feb 11 '23 at 04:08
  • @A.T.A. What do you mean by "came before it"? Can you give the entire context? – naruto Feb 11 '23 at 04:20
  • @naruto I mean, the full clause goes as so, いにしえの呪文より君の声で強くなれるの　自分を好きになれる. – A.T.A. Feb 11 '23 at 04:27
  • @A.T.A. Nothing changes. 自分を好きになれる refers to the speaker themself. – naruto Feb 11 '23 at 04:29