Happy New Year! The first Japanese Phrase of the Month for 2021 is actually a verb:
「～兼ねる」・「～兼ねない」
Have you been translating it correctly?
When you stick the verb 兼ねる to the end of other verb stems, it forms phrases like 出来かねます or 出来かねない。
When this happens, students and translators can misinterpret it to mean the exact opposite of what it really means.
For example, if a company representative tells you 「それは出来かねます」, what do you think it means? Can they do what you’re asking, or not?
They cannot do it.
How about this one?
「あの木村さんなら出来かねない」
How did you interpret that sentence? Can Kimura-san do it? Would most people be able to do it?
[Most people wouldn’t be able to do it, but] Kimura-san just might be able to do it.
Oh, boy. If you’re starting to get a bad feeling that you’ve been missing something, you’re not alone. I’ve seen some things in my time as a translation proofer. This is a commonly misunderstood construction.
So let’s break it down.
If you search 兼ねる on Goo Dictionary’s 国語 lookup, you’ll get an entry that ends with this:
４ 他の動詞の連用形に付いて用いる。
㋐…しようとして、できない。…することがむずかしい。「納得し―・ねる」「何とも言い―・ねる」
㋑（「…かねない」などの形で）…するかもしれない。…しそうだ。「悪口も言い出し―・ねない」
Now that you know the definitions, let’s use the usage examples to see what we’d actually do with these in translation. As always, translations depend on context, so every option isn’t appropriate to every case.
「納得しかねる」
I can’t accept that.
I refuse to accept that.
「何とも言いかねる」
I can’t speak on that subject.
I’ll refrain from comment.
I really couldn’t say either way.
「悪口も言い出しかねない」
I wouldn’t put it past him to dis them.
A great way to get a feel for this is to put the same verb in 兼ねる and 兼ねない form side by side, with some likely context. Let’s use 答える, or “to answer.”
答えかねる vs 答えかねない in Context
答えかねる means someone can’t/won’t answer, for whatever reason.
答えかねない means there’s a very real possibility that someone will answer.
So, let’s say you’re an anime fan and you ask me, “Is Funimation going to license Season 2 of my favorite show?” An appropriate response from me would be「お答えしかねます。」(“I can’t answer that question.”)
But what if my colleagues secretly thought I couldn’t be trusted to keep my mouth shut? What if they were worried I might answer your question without thinking? Perhaps they’d have a conversation about whether they should try to keep certain information a secret from me. In that case, it might go like this:
太郎：Sarahには秘密にしておくか。
恵：うん、Sarahは聞かれたら答えかねないからね。
Taro: Should we keep this a secret from Sarah?
Megumi: Yeah. Because if someone asks Sarah about it, she might answer them. [=We can’t trust her not to answer them.]
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions, or if you have phrases/grammar points you’d like to see broken down in the future!