If Only I Had A Hammer...
八マーさえあれば...
In Japanese grammar, using さえ (sae) after a noun describes the minimum required.
It is often safer to read Japanese nouns as indicating plurals unless otherwise specified. Here, the inclusion of さえ (sae) indeed specifies that a hammer, that is, only one hammer, would be sufficient.
The verb is ある (aru) in the conditional tense. "If (I) had..."
Therefore:
"If only I had a hammer..."
Put another way:
"If I had even one hammer..."
Alternative, #1:
There are two alternatives to さえ (sae).
First, there is でさえ (de sae) after a noun (and after a noun only).
八マーでさえあれば…
This places greater emphasis on the noun. It is like, "If only I had a hammer..."
Yet this does not feel right. Let us change the structure:
八マー無しには、私でさえ家を修理できない。
無し = "nashi," or "without"
には = "ni wa," reflective-sounding particles
家 = "ie," house
修理 = ”ｓｈuri," or "repair"
できない = "dekinai," negative of "dekiru" ("cannot do" instead of "can do")
Therefore:
"Even I can't fix the house without a hammer."
Alternatively:
"Even I can't fix the house without at least one hammer."
Alternative, #2
八マー無しには、私ですら家を修理できない。
This uses ですら (de sura) instead of でさえ (de sae).
The only practical difference is that "de sura" sounds older and more archaic, and therefore more formal.
As a matter of getting your message across, both have, in practice, the exact same meaning. Both also have the "emphasis factor" that a naked さえ (sae) might not.
Positive Spin
八マーには、私さえ家を修理できる。
In English:
"With a hammer, even I can fix up a house."
Of course, this places quite a different spin on the abilities of 私 (watashi, i.e. the speaker).
Language is like a tool box. How you use it is up to you. Language need not be a hammer, making every problem look like a nail. You can choose the right tool for the right job.
Footnote: You don't want to use があれば or がなければ after 八マー in this example because that would require an unwritten topic. Since 私 is accounted for, you can't have 私 as both the unwritten topic and an object and still be making sense. Having 私 as the topic alone would make the さえ、でさえ、ですら constructions much harder to use effectively.
Disclaimer:I am not a native Japanese speaker, so this represents the best work of a non-native, non-professor grunt from the trenches. Feel free to correct any mistakes, non-ideal language, etc., that you find.
Follow Technorati