Help with a usage of 自慢


> 私は彼が自慢だ。
>
> I'm Proud of Him
>
> 彼は私が自慢だ。
>
> He is proud of me.

I am confused by this pattern with 自慢. It kind of looks like 自慢 is being used
as an adjective (?), but the definition in Tangorin lists it as:

noun / noun or participle with aux. verb する → conjugation / noun with genitive
case particle の

Perhaps 私は彼が自慢だ can be more literally translated as "He is my pride."?

So if I dissect it--

私は I (topic marker) 彼が he (subject/object marker) 自慢だ pride is. (?)

Along this line of reasoning, does 私は自慢だ。mean "I am proud." ? I guess I am
getting confused because I see the first sentence listed and then think of a
pattern like this: 私は彼がきれいだと思います。-- "I think that he is pretty." (Where the が
connects 彼 to きれい)

Would anyone be kind enough to explain this pattern with 自慢 and maybe show a
few more examples like it?

For instance, these examples make more sense to me, though perhaps the English
expressions do not seem to correlate as easily:

> 美人の妻が彼の自慢だ。 His beautiful wife is his pride.
>
> 彼女は水泳が自慢だ。 She prides herself on her swimming. (I translate it more
> literally as "swimming is {the source of} her pride)




To say "I am proud of my sister," my personal preference is

> （私は）姉を誇りに思う。

instead of using 自慢. The word 自慢 can have the same connotation as "bragging,"
and as such I feel it deflects the attention away from what you are trying to
commend. 自慢する sounds as if you are only self satisfied (something that can be
a target of scorn).

For "his beautiful wife is his pride," I might rephrase as

> （彼女は）彼自慢の美人妻だ。

I guess the sentence is structurally different, but it's another way of saying
the same thing.

For the swimming example,

> 彼女は水泳（をする能力）に自信を持っている。

I feel the use of 自信をもつ implies a meaning closer to what "being proud of"
conveys in this case.

All the examples in the OP do make sense, and I don't think there is anything
particularly wrong, but 自慢だ is probably one of those words for which a better
wording can be found, given that "being proud of" is not always synonymous in
connotation as 自慢.

I suppose I didn't directly address the OP's question, to list more examples
of the usage of 自慢... well I think the reason why some of the OP's examples
might sound confusing is that they aren't particularly descriptive by
themselves. For example

> 彼女は息子が自慢だ。

is a bit awkward in the same the OP's first examples are a bit confusing, but
when you are more explicit like

> 彼女は息子が東大卒であることが自慢だ。

it sounds much better to me.

