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While reading a short story I found this sentence:

> これは青木がからんでいる **な** と僕はすぐわかりました。青木はその松本という男が死んだことを実にうまく利用したのです

The narrator in the past punched Aoki, since Aoki spread (or so thinks the
character) rumors on the narrator. Years later Matsumoto killed himself and a
teacher speaks with the narrator, because Matsumoto was bullied and punched,
which seems to have lead to his suicide, and the narrator goes to a boxing
gym.

In the quoted sentence the narrator is guessing that Aoki used Matsumoto death
to take revenge, but I can't understand 「からんでいるな」. I'm guessing 「からんでいる」 is
「絡む」 in continuous form, while 「と」 refers to 「わかる」; what about 「な」?

The only things that comes to mind is the negative imperative, but I'm not
sure it fits here - if it does, I have no clue about the sentence meaning. I'm
guessing it means something like "This is Aoki picking a quarrel with me", but
I'm totally ignoring that 「な」. I'm not sure if any of [Jisho's
meaning](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%AA) fits, and I wasn't able to find
anything relevant - it being a single kana doesn't help.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-03T19:46:25.973
74233
2020-02-03T22:41:51.233
35362
question
grammar
Short verb + な mid-sentence
> これは青木がからんでいる **な** と僕はすぐわかりました。

＝

> 『これは青木がからんでいる **な** 』と僕はすぐわかりました。

That 「な」 is a sentence-ending particle which
[Goo辞書](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E3%81%AA/#jn-162229) defines as:

> ３ 活用語の終止形、助詞に付く。
>
> ㋐軽い断定・主張の意を表す。「これは失敗だな」

meaning:

> Attached to terminal forms of inflecting words and other particles.
>
> Expresses light declaration or assertion. 「これは失敗だ **な** 」

Thus, this is not the negative imperative 「な」.

> I'm guessing it means something like "This is Aoki _**picking a quarrel with
> me**_ "

I am afraid that you are thinking of the other meaning of 「絡{から}む」. In this
context, 「絡んでいる」 means " _ **to be involved**_ ". You will need to remember
this meaning as it is used very often for this meaning in informal speech.

Jisho seems to keep failing to serve J-learners but it never loses its
popularity. 「な」 is a _**major**_ sentence-ender that is used many times daily
by us native speakers.

> "I knew immediately that Aoki was involved in this."
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-03T22:41:51.233
74234
2020-02-03T22:41:51.233
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
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answer