LearnJapanese Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese




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So many thanks! That's

So many thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for.
I received other suggestions, like using the negative potential form. For example:
宿題ができなかった.
However, I felt that this solution was losing almost all the nuance.

So I see that 買わず is none other that the other form of the negative verb, and じまい is clearly an euphonic suffix derived from the very same しまう verb, with exactly the same 'ending up with' meaning, transforming the whole expression in a noun that have to です in order to become a phrase.
So I'd literally (although horribly) translate: 'it was the conclusion of not buying'.
Which would of course mean precisely what I wanted to mean above: I ended up with not doing...

とても嬉しいです。どうもありがとうございました!


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