Last lesson, we had a conversation about the badassery that is honey.

Specifically:

A:
はちみつ好き？
はちみつ　すき？
Do you like honey?
Literally: "honey + liked?"

B:
はちみつ？別に普通。
はちみつ？　べつに　ふつう。
Honey? It's alright.
Literally: "honey? + (not) particularly + ordinary."

A:
えーっ！はちみつって超すごいのに！
えーっ！　はちみつ　って　ちょう　すごい　のに！
What?! But honey is amazing!
Literally: "what! + honey + って + super-amazing + のに！"

B:
そうなの？どんな風にすごいの？
そうなの？　どんな　ふう　に　すごい　の？
Is it? How is it amazing?
Literally: "is that so? + what kind of + way + amazing + の?"

A:
美味しいし、体にいいし、なによりハチが作ってるってことがすごいじゃん。
おいしい　し、　からだ　に　いい　し、　なにより　ハチ　が　つくってる　って　こと　が　すごい　じゃん。
Well, for one thing, it's delicious. And it's good for you. But most amazing of all is that it's made by bees!
Literally: "delicious + し, + body + に + good + し, above all + bees + が + are making + って + thing + が + amazing + じゃん."

B:
へー、はちみつって体にいいんだ。
へー、はちみつ　って　からだ　に　いい　んだ。
Oh, honey is good for you?
Literally: "whoa, + honey + って + body + に + good + んだ."

A:
そうだよ。歯にもいいし。
そうだ　よ。　は　にも　いい　し。
Yeah. It's good for your teeth, too.
Literally: "that's right. + teeth + にも + good + し."

B:
まじで？歯にもいいの？
まじで？　は　にも　いい　の？
Seriously? It's good for your teeth?
Literally: "seriously? + teeth + にも + good + の？"

A:
あとはのどが痛い時に食べたり、傷に塗ったり、リップクリームのかわりに唇に塗ったり。
あと　は　のど　が　いたい　とき　に　たべたり、　きず　に　ぬったり、　リップクリーム　の　かわり　に　くちびる　に　ぬったり。
Also, you can eat it when you have a sore throat, or put it on cuts, or use it in place of lip balm.
Literally: "also [remaining] + は + throat + が + painful + time + に + (things like) eating, + wound [cut] + に + paint / plaster, + lip balm [lit. 'lip cream'] + の + instead of + lips + に + paint / plaster."

B:
ちょっとはちみつ買ってくるわ。
ちょっと　はちみつ　かって　くる　わ。
I'm gonna go buy some honey!
Literally: "just a minute + は + honey + buy (and) + come + わ."

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I know that all of you are itching to get some grammar explanations, since we're all such studious humans.

So yeah. Let's do that...

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～のに to express regret.

We saw this sentence:

えーっ！はちみつって超すごいのに！
えーっ！　はちみつ　って　ちょう　すごい　のに！
What?! But honey is amazing!
Literally: "what! + honey + って + super-amazing + のに！"

We've looked at this のに before, though briefly.

It means something like "but" or "although."

It's commonly used at the end of a sentence to express that you are regretful or unhappy about something.

For example, let's say you tried your very hardest to succeed at something, but then you failed to accomplish your goals. In that case, you could say...

頑張ったのに。
がんばった　のに。
But I tried so hard. // Even though I worked so hard (I failed).
Literally: "did my best + のに."
Note: The semi-literal translation would be, "Although I tried so hard."

Or maybe you find out that your best friend went to Disneyland and didn't even invite you. Betrayal!

While pouting, you could say:

一緒に行きたかったのに。
いっしょに　いきたかった　のに。
I would've loved to have gone (with you). // Why didn't you invite me?
Literally: "together + wanted to go + のに."
Note: The semi-literal translation would be, "Although I wanted to go with you."

Oh yeah, let's not forget grammar stuff:

Notice that in each of the sentences above, the word coming before ～のに is in plain form:
すごいのに
頑張ったのに
行きたかったのに

In other words, you CANNOT say:
すごいですのに
頑張りましたのに
行きたかったですのに

Onward!

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って is confusing.

We have って showing up in these sentences:

えーっ！はちみつって超すごいのに！
えーっ！　はちみつ　って　ちょう　すごい　のに！
What?! But honey is amazing!
Literally: "what! + honey + って + super-amazing + のに！"

へー、はちみつって体にいいんだ。
へー、はちみつ　って　からだ　に　いい　んだ。
Oh, honey is good for you?
Literally: "whoa, + honey + って + body + に + good + んだ."

First, let me just say, mastering this usage of って will take time.

In a way, it's close to the usage of the particle は. At least, that's what one of my old textbooks told me.

Let's imagine that it's a common, casual way of saying ～というものは.

Then we can imagine that ～という is like quotation marks around the word coming before it. And ものは is like saying, "as for that thing."

So a weird, semi-literal translation of はちみつって《はちみつというものは》 is "the thing known as 'honey.'" But that sounds ridiculous, so we just put "honey" in the translations.

Another way of phrasing the above explanation is that って adds emphasis to the sentence (and to the awesomeness of honey). We could actually remove it from the sentences, and they would still be correct:

えーっ！はちみつ超すごいのに！
えーっ！　はちみつ　ちょう　すごい　のに！
What?! But honey is amazing!
Literally: "what! + honey + super-amazing + のに！"

へー、はちみつ体にいいんだ。
へー、はちみつ　からだ　に　いい　んだ。
Oh, honey is good for you?
Literally: "whoa, + honey + body + に + good + んだ."

In fact, the nuance isn't all that different without って. And the meaning is pretty much the same.

Can you tell that I'm struggling to explain this? Because I am. I can tell you that adding って adds a bit of emphasis to the sentences, but detailing exactly how that emphasis could be expressed in English eludes me a bit. Suffice it to say that adding って brings a bit more attention to "honey," and therefore brings a bit more attention to its awesomeness.

But what about that other って that showed up in the conversation?

You mean this one...

美味しいし、体にいいし、なによりハチが作ってるってことがすごいじゃん。
おいしい　し、　からだ　に　いい　し、　なにより　ハチ　が　つくってる　って　こと　が　すごい　じゃん。
Well, for one thing, it's delicious. And it's good for you. But most amazing of all is that it's made by bees!
Literally: "delicious + し, + body + に + good + し, above all + bees + が + are making + って + thing + が + amazing + じゃん."

ってこと is short for ということ.

We have this sentence:

ハチが作ってる。
ハチ　が　つくってる。
Bees are making (it).
Literally: "bees + が + are making."

Adding って onto that is, as I've mentioned in other lessons, like putting quotes around the preceding sentence:

ハチが作ってるって。
ハチ　が　つくってるって。
"Bees are making (it)."
Literally: "bees + が + are making + って."

In a different context, this sentence could mean:

ハチが作ってるって。
ハチ　が　つくってるって。
He says bees are making it. // Apparently bees make it.
Literally: "bees + が + are making + って."

Then, by adding こと onto the end of that, it's like we're nominalizing the entire phrase. In other words, we are forming a noun phrase:

ハチが作ってるってこと。
ハチ　が　つくってるってこと。
The fact that bees are making it.
Literally: "bees + が + are making + ってこと."

こと, "thing," is a noun, and here it is acting as the subject of a clause (sort of).

The predicate of the sentence, then, is すごい, meaning "(is) amazing."

"the fact that bees are making it" + "is amazing."

We connect these two halves with the particle が, giving us:

ハチが作ってるってことがすごい。
ハチ　が　つくってる　って　こと　が　すごい。
What's amazing is that bees make it.
Literally: "bees + が + are making + って + thing + が + amazing."

You'll find that ってこと commonly connects noun phrases (as subjects) and verbs or adjectives (as predicates):

努力するってことが大事だ。
どりょく　する　ってこと　が　だいじだ。
What matters is the effort you put in.
Literally: "great effort + do + ってこと + が + important + だ."

Using this structure, we don't necessarily have to have こと coming after って. Rather, a number of nouns will work there:

田中さん辞めるって話聞いた？
たなかさん　やめる　って　はなし　きいた？
Did you hear that Mr. Tanaka is quitting?
Literally: "Tanaka-san + quit + って + talk / story + heard?"

The nuance in this sentence is that there are people talking about how Tanaka said that he is going to quit. It's not quite a rumor, because the nuance is that it's really true. If we said うわさ, "rumor," instead of 話, "talk / story," then the nuance would be that he might not really be quitting.

You know how I'm always talking about how we can drop words out of Japanese sentences using context?

Well, if you think about it, we don't really need to say 話 in the sentence above, because it's kind of obvious that we're talking about the story which is that Tanaka is quitting. Accordingly, the following sentence is pretty much identical:

田中さん辞めるって聞いた？
たなかさん　やめる　って　きいた？
Did you hear that Mr. Tanaka is quitting?
Literally: "Tanaka-san + quit + って + heard?"

To conclude: って is confusing. And so is ってこと. Also, it is mainly used to connote nuance.

So what do we do when something is confusing and nuance-based in Japanese? We learn it through massive exposure!

Once you hear people using って and ってこと a thousand times, you'll start to get a nice, natural feel for how it works in conversations. At that point, if you're a genius, maybe you can put that nuance into words, then email me and tell me how to improve my lessons.

Fight-O, everyone. You got this.