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でもあの様子だとワザとってわけじゃなさそうだし...

My translation (which is probably not complete and even wrong) is this:

But if that's the situation it doesn't seem like it is a trick.

However I'm not sure what the だと, ワザ, とってわけ, and し mean here or if I got them right. Is the だと functioning as a conditional? Also if ワザ means trick, what's the point of writing it in Katakana? I've actually noticed a few words that are usually written in hiragana but that appear in katakana throughout the manga. Regarding the とってわけ part I'm lost there and couldn't find anything in Google. Lastly, I read somewhere that the しat the end could mean "so", is that right?

Eddie Kal
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leosan
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1 Answers1

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This is how you should parse the sentence

でも、(あの様子だと) (ワザと) (って) (わけじゃなさそうだ) し

But, if that's case, it seems unlikely that it is done on purpose.

だと - Yes you are right, it is a と conditional. It works for nouns. You can learn more about this here.

ワザと - An adverb meaning "on purpose." と fossilized in this word. Katakana is probably used for emphasis. It is almost like using bold or italics in English.

ってわけじゃなさそうだ - って is short for という and it is used to modify わけ. You understand what わけじゃない means, right?

し - reason marker

Jimmy Yang
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  • Alright it makes much more sense now. I really appreciate your help. Regarding わけじゃない I understand it means something like "it is not the case that". However it is still not clear to me what the function of って is there, even if translated as という. Not sure how it modifies わけ either and if it would make any difference if it wasn't there... If you could explain a bit more about this it would be awesome. Thanks! – leosan Jan 18 '22 at 03:55
  • @leosan という adds emphasis. ~というわけではない and ~わけではない mean almost the same thing. The difference between these two is complicated and subtle so I can't give you a full answer here. – Jimmy Yang Jan 18 '22 at 05:16