Departments
Lesson 2
“I’ll Only Be Living Here for a While.”
Kari no 仮のis an adjective that means “temporary, provisional.” The “transient world” in which we all exist is kari no yo 仮の世. You can also employ kari as an adverb by adding ni. In this usage, its English translation becomes “provisionally” or “for the time being.”
仮にこの理論が本当だとしよう。
Kari ni kono riron ga hontō da to shiyō.
Let us assume, for the time being, that this theory is true.
Combined with the construction to shite mo, kari ni conveys the meaning of “even if..”:
仮に植物のエキスだけで作った製品があったとしても、すぐ腐ってしまう。
Kari ni shokubutsu no ekisu dake de tsukutta seihin ga atta to shite mo, sugu kusatte shimau.
Even if there was a product made only from plant extracts, it would quickly go bad.
Kari also appears as a prefix, in a plethora of words that contain the meaning of “temporary” or “provisional.” One example is 仮住い kari-zumai, which refers to a “temporary residence.”
もうすぐ国に帰るので、ホテルで仮住いするつもりです。
Mō sugu kuni ni kaeru node, hoteru de kari-zumai suru tsumori desu.
I will be returning to my native country soon, so I plan to take up temporary residence in a hotel.
Vocabulary
入社日より2ヶ月間は見習い期間として仮採用扱いとなります。
Nyūsha-bi yori nikagetsu-kan wa minarai to shite kari-saiyō atsukai to narimasu.
For your first two months of employment, you undergo a two-month training period of probationary employment.
