Ch.23 Vol.3 | 80% of fear came to his knees! by Zenitsu

Welcome to Kimetsu no Japanese, a site for learning Japanese from a manga Demon Slayer.

Today’s topic

Ch.23 Vol.3
Zenitsu Agatsuma (我妻 善逸)

膝ひざにきてる　恐怖きょうふが八割はちわり　膝ひざに！！

It’s in my knees! Eighty percent of my fear in my knees!

Reference source : 五峠呼世晴 (2016) 鬼滅の刃3 集英社
Reference source : KOYOHARU GOTOUGE. (2018). Demon Slayer. VIZ Media, LL

How could I make a funny phrase like this?
I love and respect Zenitsu so much as you probably do. He is a terrible coward but has an unbelievable talent and without him Demon Slayer can’t be completed. Nobody couldn’t imagine what would happen next to this scene but I can imagine everyone must have been stunned!!

OK, let’s see a witty remark of weakling-Zenitsu.

Lesson

JPN	膝（ひざ）にきてる / 恐怖（きょうふ）が八割（はちわり） / 膝（ひざ）に！！
JPN♪	hiza ni kiteru / kyōhu ga hachiwari / hiza ni
ENG	It comes into my knees / Eighty percent of my fear / into my knees

WORD	JPN♪	MEANING
膝ひざに	hiza ni	(in)to one’s knees.   膝(ひざ) : knee(s) に(ni) : <postpositional particle>reaching a place, situation
きてる	kiteru	to come; properly written as “kiteiru” (Basic form = “Kuru”)
恐怖きょうふ	kyohu	fear
が	ga	<postpositional particle> a word before “ga” become a subject, this case, “恐怖(fear)
八割はちわり	hachiwari	80 percent 八(はち　hachi)：eight 割（わり　wari）：Japanese original mathematical expression of rate. 1割=1/10

Explanation | Inverted structure

This sentence looks simple but it uses an inverted structure.

Normally we can say this phrase in this order;
恐怖が　八割　膝に　きてる　(kyohu ga hachiwari hizani kiteru)

but as translated in the manga, this order,
膝ひざにきてる　恐怖きょうふが八割はちわり　膝ひざに
he emphasizes “膝に(hiza ni) = IN MY KNEES”, so he says “hizani” first and ends with “hizani” again.

Changing word order from a basic structure is quite effective to make an accent to a sentence when you want to say something strongly.

Flexibility of order

Japanese grammar is quite flexible as its order, a subject can come late and an object can come first if you want. You can put any word regardless of order, but you need to care about postpositional particles instead.

IT IS EVERYTHING.
For this sentence, I explained に(ni) and が(ga), which means “ni” for “to” and “ga” for no meaning but “ga” determines a word (just before it) as a subject.

I will explain more about postpositional particle in the other articles.

Explanation | To come = “kuru” (kiteru)

Basic form of “kiteru“ is “くる　kuru”.

The meaning of “Kuru” is “to come” as explained in the table of ‘LESSON’c. But this word has several meanings and in this case it means “to give a bad influence on something”.

Therefore, what Zenitsu meant in the topic sentence is “eighty percent of my fear has given a bad effect on my knees and I can’t move any more.”

Idioms using “kuru” 1

“Kuru” is also used with other words to make idioms.
When you say “kuru” with a body part, it usually means “give a bad influence on the part”.

Part	JPN	JPN♪	MEANING
LEG	足あしにくる	ashi ni kuru	to have fatigue or pains in my legs
HEAD	お腹なかにくる	onaka ni kuru	to have loose bowels
KIDNEY	肝臓かんぞうにくる	kanzo ni kuru	to have a bad condition of kidney (for drinking too much)

“足あしにくる(ashi ni kuru)”, we often use this phrase when we are tired for walking too much or you have a pains on your legs for some reasons.
For example, when you see a rough mountain route for climbing, you can say,
“これは　足に　くるぞ！” (kore wa ashi ni kuruzo! = It’ll be tough for my legs!)

Idioms using “kuru” 2

Let’s see some more idioms of “kuru” with the other words. These are the phrases that you can’t imagine only by the word.

JPN	JPN♪	MEANING
頭あたまにくる	atama ni kuru	to get angry
ピンとくる	pin to kuru	to have a eureka moment, to have a sudden inspiration by a small hint
かちんとくる	kachin to kuru	“it annoyed me”

That’s all

Today’s simple sentence contained lots of important elements.
Please remember this phrase “hiza ni kiteru!” when your legs get tired or you can’t stand up in horror.

Anyway, in the situation that eighty percent of fear (huge!) is in his knees, Zenitsu did his best, don’t you think so?

Use new phrases for leaning!