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I've found a couple of times while reading novels the grammar patterns

Verb stem + はしまいか/はすまいか

and

Verb て + いはしまいか/いはすまいか

However, I googled these patterns, but I couldn't find any website explaining them.

Could you please tell me about their meaning and give me an example of how are they used (if possible, I would like to see some any other sentence to have it as reference)?

Rick
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1 Answers1

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It's not a fixed pattern with an idiomatic meaning, but a combination of simple rules. Taking 食べる as an example verb, 食べはすまい is just 食べはする with まい (negative inference) and か (question marker) attached. 食べていはする is 食べていはする with まい and か.

  • 食べはする and so on are ways of attaching は (contrastive), も ("also/even") and すら ("even") to a verb. For example, 食べる + は becomes 食べはする ("eat at least"), 食べる + も becomes 食べもする ("also eat"), 食べる + すら + ない becomes 食べすらしない ("not even eat"). See also: What's the grammatical breakdown of "知りもしないわ"?
  • 食べはしまい (or 食べはすまい, 食べはするまい) is a negative inference version of 食べはする. しまい, すまい and するまい are interchangeable. It means 食べはしないだろう. For details, see this question.
  • か is a question marker.

Therefore, 食べはしまいか is roughly the same as 食べはしないだろうか or 食べないだろうか ("Won't he eat it?", "I'm afraid that he will eat it").

If there's also a progressive meaning, just replace 食べる to 食べている and follow the same pattern:

  • 食べている: is eating
  • 食べていはする: is eating (at least)
  • 食べていはしまい: it's not likely that he is eating
  • 食べていはしまいか: isn't it likely that he is eating?

食べていはしまいか is roughly the same as 食べていはしないだろうか or 食べていないだろうか ("I wonder if he's eating?", "I'm afraid that he may be eating it").

naruto
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  • Are すまい and しまい the same here? I would otherwise expect しまい in this position to be 仕舞い. – Karl Knechtel Mar 07 '23 at 01:53
  • @KarlKnechtel I've explained it in my answer. See the second bullet. まい has nothing to do with (-て)しまう. – naruto Mar 07 '23 at 01:55
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    Ah, an unfortunate phonetic overlap, then. する seems to cause a lot of problems like that. – Karl Knechtel Mar 07 '23 at 01:56
  • @naruto Thank you very much for your answer. Your breakdown of the structures helped me a lot to understand how are they formed and their meaning. :) – Rick Mar 07 '23 at 12:48
  • @naruto Is this common today, or perhaps a bit dated? I don’t think I’ve encountered it in speech or in literature. – jogloran Mar 07 '23 at 15:52
  • ”食べていはする” is actually grammatical? I had always assumed the “topical form” of “食べている” is “食べてはいる” because one actually encounters it and with that meaning. Is there a difference in your opinion between “〜てはいる” and “〜ていはする”? – Zorf Nov 19 '23 at 21:47
  • @Zorf Yes, but it's much less common. Another example is at the end of this answer. This is related. – naruto Nov 20 '23 at 01:52