Breakdown of gamansisugiru to, huanna kimoti ga sukosizutu tamatte ikimasu.
Questions & Answers about gamansisugiru to, huanna kimoti ga sukosizutu tamatte ikimasu.
What does しすぎる mean here, and is it one word or two verbs?
しすぎる comes from 我慢する (to endure/hold back) + すぎる (to do too much).
- The verb する changes to its ます-stem form し
- Then you add すぎる → しすぎる = to endure too much / to overdo the self-restraint
So grammatically it’s:
- 我慢する → 我慢し + すぎる → 我慢しすぎる
- Meaning: “if you hold it in too much,” “if you overdo suppressing yourself,” etc.
What is the function of と after 我慢しすぎる? Is it the quotation particle?
In this sentence, と is not the quotation と. It’s the conditional と, which means roughly “when / if / whenever”.
- 我慢しすぎると、~
→ “When you endure too much, …” / “If you keep holding it in too much, …”
This と often expresses a natural or inevitable result:
- ボタンを押すと、ドアが開きます。
“If/when you press the button, the door opens.”
Similarly:
- 我慢しすぎると、不安な気持ちが少しずつたまっていきます。
“If/when you endure too much, anxious feelings gradually build up.”
So: it’s a conditional marker, not a quotation marker.
Why 不安な気持ち and not just 不安? What’s the nuance?
Both are possible, but there is a nuance difference:
不安が少しずつたまっていきます。
→ “Anxiety gradually builds up.” (treats 不安 as the thing itself)不安な気持ちが少しずつたまっていきます。
→ “Anxious feelings gradually build up.”
気持ち means “feeling” or “emotion.” By saying 不安な気持ち, the sentence:
- sounds more personal and emotional
- emphasizes the inner feeling rather than an abstract “anxiety” as a concept
In everyday speech, 不安な気持ちが… feels softer and more about what’s going on inside someone’s heart/mind.
Why is it 不安な気持ち and not 不安の気持ち?
Because 不安 here is a な-adjective, not just a noun.
- な-adjectives modify nouns with な:
- きれいな人 (a beautiful person)
- 元気な子ども (a lively child)
- 不安な気持ち (an anxious feeling)
Using の (不安の気持ち) would sound unnatural here. When you want to say “an anxious feeling,” you treat 不安 as an adjective: 不安な + 気持ち.
Why is the particle が used with 気持ち instead of は?
が marks the grammatical subject of the verb たまっていきます:
- 不安な気持ちが少しずつたまっていきます。
“Anxious feelings (subject) gradually accumulate.”
If you said:
- 不安な気持ちは少しずつたまっていきます。
it would put contrast or topic focus on “anxious feelings” (as the topic), possibly implying “as for anxious feelings (as opposed to something else), they accumulate…” That’s a slightly different nuance.
Here, the sentence is simply explaining what builds up, so が as a neutral subject marker is natural.
What is the difference between 少しずつ and just 少し?
- 少し by itself = “a little,” “a bit.”
- 少しずつ = “little by little,” “gradually,” “bit by bit.”
ずつ indicates distribution over time or space, so 少しずつ implies repeated small increases:
- 少しずつたまっていきます。
→ “They gradually build up (a little at a time).”
If you said:
- 不安な気持ちが少したまっていきます。
it could be understood, but it sounds less natural and loses the clear “step‑by‑step accumulation” nuance that 少しずつ provides.
What does たまっていきます mean exactly? How is it formed?
たまっていきます is:
- たまる (to accumulate, to build up)
→ te-form: たまって- いく (here as an auxiliary)
→ polite form: いきます
- いく (here as an auxiliary)
So:
- たまっていく = “to go on accumulating,” “to keep piling up,” “to gradually build up (as time goes on).”
Nuance:
- たまる = simply “to accumulate” (a state/event)
- たまっていく = emphasizes a process over time, the ongoing increase into the future.
Thus, 不安な気持ちが少しずつたまっていきます。 focuses on the gradual, continuing build‑up of the feelings.
What’s the general meaning of the pattern te-form + いく, like in たまっていきます?
Vていく often means that an action or state develops or continues from now into the future or away from the speaker’s current point in time.
Common nuances:
- Gradual change:
- 暗くなっていく = “to get darker and darker (going forward)”
- Continuing process:
- 勉強を続けていく = “to keep on studying (from here on)”
In this sentence:
- たまっていく
→ “(the feelings) keep piling up as time passes,”
→ “they go on accumulating.”
So Vていく adds a time/progression feeling compared to just Vる.
Why is the verb at the end いきます (polite), while earlier it’s 我慢しすぎる (plain form)? Is that allowed?
Yes, this is normal and grammatical.
- In conditionals like X すると、Y ます, it’s common to have:
- plain form before と (or たら, ば, etc.)
- polite form in the main clause
Examples:
- ボタンを押すと、ドアが開きます。
- 勉強しないと、テストで困ります。
So:
- 我慢しすぎると、不安な気持ちが少しずつたまっていきます。
fits the usual pattern: plain conditional clause + polite main clause. The politeness is determined primarily by the final verb form (いきます).
Could we say 我慢しすぎたら instead of 我慢しすぎると? What would change?
You could say:
- 我慢しすぎたら、不安な気持ちが少しずつたまっていきます。
It’s grammatical, but the nuance shifts a bit.
- X すると、Y often expresses a natural, almost automatic result or general rule.
- X したら、Y is a more general “if/when X happens, Y,” and can sound more event-like or one-time.
In this context:
我慢しすぎると suggests a general tendency / predictable consequence: “When people overdo enduring things, anxious feelings (tend to) build up.”
我慢しすぎたら can sound a bit more like: “If/when you happen to have endured too much on some occasion, then your anxious feelings build up.”
Both are understandable, but と fits the idea of a general psychological pattern especially well.
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