Grammar is a friend: ~てはばからない

So today, I’d like to make a post about a grammar point that I saw on Nihongo no Mori, but haven’t been able to find in the two grammar books I have.
~てはばからない
意味:周囲を気にしたり、遠慮したりすることがない様子
接続:Vて+はばからない
I’d like to also add the meaning of the verb being attached to て.
憚る    はばかる    (v5r,vi) (1) (uk) to hesitate; to have scruples; to be afraid of what others may think; (2) (uk) to lord it over; to have great influence

My understanding is that it means someone is saying or doing something without a care to how others are perceiving it. They aren’t reading the room to realize their response goes against what most people are thinking, and say whatever they’re thinking with confidence. Hence the not being afraid of what other’s may think bit. 

確実ではないものの、刑事はその事件と何の関係もないことを公言してはばからない。あいつは目的のためなら、周りの人に迷惑をかけてはばからないから、みんなに嫌われている。
監督は、この映画は必ず大ヒットすると断言してはばからない。

These are the three sentences I mined from the video using ShareX. But I’m going to take the time to look for other examples separate from the video. I initially looked inside my 2mil+ Anki Sentence Bank deck but…I came up with nothing! Honestly, I am a bit surprised by that. So let’s use google instead. I like to go to the “news” tab and find sentences there because most of the time when i look up a grammar point, I just get pages that are trying to teach that grammar point.

この男は優秀なパイロットだが、「男は男の仕事を、女は女の役割を」と言ってはばからない石頭で、エルマとはとことん相性が悪い。(Source)
Ha. So there’s a few bits of this sentence I had to look up.
 石頭    いしあたま    (n) (1) (id) obstinate person; stubbornness; pigheadedness; (2) hard head (like a rock); (P)
とことん    (n) (1) (on-mim) the very end; finish; (n-adv) (2) (on-mim) to the very end; to the last; thoroughly; completely; fully
相性    あいしょう    (n) affinity; compatibility; chemistry (between people); (P
)So I’m going to take this part “「男は男の仕事を、女は女の役割を」と言ってはばからない石頭” and kinda parse this out for the sake of the grammar point.
So they’re quoting this guy. “Men do the work of men, women the role/duties of a woman” と言ってはばからない石頭. This hard headed guy is saying this in the year 2020?! マジで!? That’s such an awkward thing to say when more and more people have more progressive thoughts about gender roles. He isn’t afraid of what people will think when he says this, so he says it. 

Let me find a couple more that I can add to my anki deck…

少数者に負担を押し付けてはばからない。(Source
少数者    しょうすうしゃ    (n) the minority
負担    ふたん    (n) (1) burden; load; responsibility; (vs) (2) bearing (a cost, responsibility, etc.); shouldering; (P)

以前から唯一の個人的目標は「シーズン100得点」といってはばからない。(Source)得点    とくてん    (n,vs) scoring; score; points made; marks obtained; goals; runs; (P)

うちの議員は、普段は他の議員の悪口を言わないんだけど、X議員については「大嫌いだ」と公言してはばからない (Source)

Okay so I just learned 公言してはばからない is a set phrase because rikaikun just picked it up. Nice!
公言してはばからない こうげんしてはばからない (exp,adj-i) having no hesitation in stating; having no hesitation in declaring

I definitely prefer to use something like Nihongo no Mori for learning grammar, simply because I can listen to a native speaker talking about it and giving example sentences and feel better about incorporating those sentences into Anki.

Has anyone else come across this before in their studies? Any sentences that you’ve mined? I’d love to know!

2 thoughts on “Grammar is a friend: ~てはばからない

  1. Hi! 🙂 I just found your post because I wanted to read more examples regarding this grammar structure, since it appeared today on my book (I’m using 新完全マスターN1). The book defines it as 「遠慮や気兼ねをするべきなのに、大胆にも~する。」, by the way. Greetings from Mexico!

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    1. Oh neat! I knew I had to have seen it somewhere in a book, and I for sure thought I had the N1 Shin Kanzen grammar book, but it looks like it got lost during my move. Thanks for reaching out ^^

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