THE POSTPOSITION.
slipshod speakers, it occurs at the end of a sentence as a sort of expletive with a certain amount of interrogative force, thus :
Ant no ? " Is there ? " " Do you mean to say that there is ? " instead of Am ka ?
N. B. Perhaps it would be more correct to consider such phrases as belonging to the idiom mentioned in the next paragraph.
114. At other times, and this is a very favourite idiom, no occurs as a sort of emphatic expletive to- wards the end of a sentence, especially before the substantive verb da or desu, " is." In such contexts it may be, and generally is, in familiar conversation clipped of its vowel, so that it sinks into the single letter n For practical purposes, no thus used may be considered the equivalent of koto, and rendered more or less literally by the English word " fact " or " act," thus :
Konai n' daro. (famil.)^ It is probable that he
'o mf -t>t fact ,c ill-,,, ob a biff -be I won't COme, OY I don't
Konai ' desho. (politer) J think he will come.
Nani wo sum n' desu ? w . hat is it: that y u are
ff/r/ [aeons'] do fact ? j doing ?
Massugu ni iku n" 1 desu'
ka?
Stratght-ly go act it
Am I to go straight on ? -more lit. Is it that I am to go straight on ?
The exact force of no combined with the verb da or desii may be practically exemplified by comparing, say, Nani wo shimasu ? " What are you doing ? " With Nani wo sum n' desu? " What is it that you are doing ? "
