Making someone feel something


> いちいち腹のたつことを、わざわざ言いにこないでよ  
>  Don't come specially to say things which make me angry (my translation
> attempt)

I'm confused by 腹がたつ. It's my understanding that it means 'to **get/become**
angry' rather than 'to **make** angry'. How can I understand what's going on
here?

More generally, how do I say things like 'That person **makes** me angry' or
'Eating cake **makes** me happy. I include both examples because I suspect
that **people** making you feel things is different from **things** making you
feel things.




My gut feeling is that the cause of your confusion is the true transitivity of
the idiomatic expression 「[腹]{はら}が[立]{た}つ」. You already seem to know it is
intransitive in Japanese, but you **_rightly_** translated it as if it were
transitive -- "things which **_make me angry_** ".

Of course, you could have translated 「腹の立つこと」 as " ** _things that I get angry
over_** " or the like and the original transitivity would have been retained.
In translation, however, whatever sounds better in the **_target language_**
is the better translation.

You have achieved a good translation at the cost of a Japanese intransitive
verb getting unduly treated like a bloody stupid transitive one. That kind of
thing, however, happens all the time when translating between two unrelated
languages.

At least, the above is what the average Japanese-speaker with a weird French
username thinks is happening here.

> "More generally, how do I say things like 'That person makes me angry' or
> 'Eating cake makes me happy. I include both examples because I suspect that
> people making you feel things is different from things making you feel
> things."

This is highly related to what I have ranted about above.

In natural settings, Japanese-speakers would not say the **_directly_**
translated versions of "That person makes me angry." or "Eating cake makes me
happy.", period.

The direct translations I am referring to would be:

「あの[人]{ひと}は[私]{わたし}を[怒]{おこ}らせる。」 and

「ケーキを[食]{た}べることは私を[幸]{しあわ}せにする。」, respectively.

Again, we would practically never say either of those in a natural setting.
You would undoubtedly sound like a robot if you used those sentences in real
life with a native speaker.

We do not use causative verb forms to express those feelings in Japanese. We
would instead use sentences such as:

「（私は）あの人に[怒]{おこ}っている。」

「（私は）あの人に腹が立っている。」

「ケーキを[食]{た}べていると[幸]{しあわ}せな[気分]{きぶん}になれる。」

「ケーキを食べている[時]{とき}が[一番]{いちばん}幸せです。」




My gut feeling is that the cause of your confusion is the true transitivity of
the idiomatic expression 「[腹]{はら}が[立]{た}つ」. You already seem to know it is
intransitive in Japanese, but you **_rightly_** translated it as if it were
transitive -- "things which **_make me angry_** ".

Of course, you could have translated 「腹の立つこと」 as " ** _things that I get angry
over_** " or the like and the original transitivity would have been retained.
In translation, however, whatever sounds better in the **_target language_**
is the better translation.

You have achieved a good translation at the cost of a Japanese intransitive
verb getting unduly treated like a bloody stupid transitive one. That kind of
thing, however, happens all the time when translating between two unrelated
languages.

At least, the above is what the average Japanese-speaker with a weird French
username thinks is happening here.

> "More generally, how do I say things like 'That person makes me angry' or
> 'Eating cake makes me happy. I include both examples because I suspect that
> people making you feel things is different from things making you feel
> things."

This is highly related to what I have ranted about above.

In natural settings, Japanese-speakers would not say the **_directly_**
translated versions of "That person makes me angry." or "Eating cake makes me
happy.", period.

The direct translations I am referring to would be:

「あの[人]{ひと}は[私]{わたし}を[怒]{おこ}らせる。」 and

「ケーキを[食]{た}べることは私を[幸]{しあわ}せにする。」, respectively.

Again, we would practically never say either of those in a natural setting.
You would undoubtedly sound like a robot if you used those sentences in real
life with a native speaker.

We do not use causative verb forms to express those feelings in Japanese. We
would instead use sentences such as:

「（私は）あの人に[怒]{おこ}っている。」

「（私は）あの人に腹が立っている。」

「ケーキを[食]{た}べていると[幸]{しあわ}せな[気分]{きぶん}になれる。」

「ケーキを食べている[時]{とき}が[一番]{いちばん}幸せです。」

