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> A: ところで、はるって誰ですか  
>  B: 誰とかではなくてですね...

I understand the overall meaning of the conversation but I don't really get
why "とか" is used nor why the second sentence ends with ではなくて instead of ではない。

Thank you very much in advance :)
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2020-12-22T23:17:47.243
83221
2020-12-23T00:07:24.933
2020-12-22T23:45:22.567
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question
grammar meaning
Could you help me understand the grammar in this sentence?
> 誰とかではなくてですね  
>  It's not a question of who but rather ...

This とか means 'things such as' so 誰とか implies "(questions) such as who".

Xではなくて is literally 'not X and ...', but often translates rather more
naturally as "rather than X ..."

As a non-native speaker I'm on thinner ground here. I don't know if adding です
is grammatical but I think, rather than leaving the sentence hanging with the
..., it converts it into a statement, but I can't think of a natural way to
put all those parts together into an English sentence, so I think I;ll stick
with my translation above. Maybe someone else can do a more convincing job.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-23T00:07:24.933
83222
2020-12-23T00:07:24.933
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answer