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After a brief hiatus I'm getting back into my Japanese study. I've hit a
roadblock straight away ;-) I am having trouble with the use of '使ってみなさい'
here. I don't think I've seen it before. -なさい means "please don't do ". Then
the sentence after that, I am confused by the use of 'ない’.

Could somebody help me with the translation please?

(context: Zelda guide book talking about using new items that you find)

> ちなみに宝箱やツボの中から入手できる矢束、爆弾などは、「その場で使ってみなさい」という、さりげないヒントであることが多い。 (By the way,
> inside treasure chests and jars you can get arrows, bombs etc. [that place
> please don’t see and use ] there are many casual hints。)
>
> 使っても意味のない場所やタイミングでアイテムが手に入ることはないのだ。

I'm sure it ends with saying "there is no need to obtain items" but that makes
little sense. The beginning of the sentence is confusing to me, I cannot even
guess at what it is trying to say. The meaning of [their] use... not at this
place?

Really struggling...
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2014-11-03T09:32:38.157
19353
2014-11-03T10:08:56.130
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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question
grammar verbs
使ってみなさい, and 使っても意味のない場所
～なさい gets appended to the stem of the verb. Here, you have the compound verb
使ってみる "to try to use", whose stem is 使ってみ. Appending ～なさい gives

> 使ってみなさい  
>  _Try to use [it]!_  
>  Give it a try!

For the second part, you are probably more confused by the の than by the ない.

> 使っても意味のない場所

is

> [使っても意味がない] 場所

after "ga-no conversion". That is, 使っても意味がない modifies 場所, giving

> 使っても意味のない場所  
>  a place, where using [it] is pointless/useless
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2014-11-03T10:08:56.130
19354
2014-11-03T10:08:56.130
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answer