一体: “What the?!”

Introduction

What the heck's going on in here!

... Is just one of many awesome phrases you'll soon be able to say. Welcome, to this lesson on all things 一体いったい!

Ouch! Oh wait, wrong spelling: It's 一体いったい, baby

構成こうせい

• 

  一体いったい(question word)......

  Example:
  → いったい何なんだ！
  ”What the heck!”

As the title suggests, the first thing you should be sure of when it comes to いったい, is that it's not the same as 痛いたい ("ouch; painful"). That small つ is important!

いったい is an adverb (副詞ふくし in Japanese), that loosely translates to "What the!" or "What the heck!". But watch out, because 一体いったい always pairs with a question word, such as 何なに, どう, どこ, etc. This means that we can't use it all on its own for an easy exclamation, unfortunately.