Understanding the usage of もう with present tense verbs?

Question

I think when a lot of people first learn もう it's as "already', right? There's also the meanings of "anymore", "soon", "now", "more', "another" and its use as an interjection. That's a lot of meaning packed in one small word, I think, and personally I get easily confused whenever I see it. In particular, the use of もう to mean "already", and its use with certain verbs constantly confound me. My question concerns the use of もう with certain verbs and its meaning in those contexts. I'm not sure if there's a specific term for the type I mean but two examples are 止める and 諦める. (Edit:My reasoning is that these verbs are similar to negative form verbs on their own. I'm wondering if due to that property I should understand them the same way I understand もう我慢できない (can't take it anymore) and もうするな (don't do that anymore).) Specifically when used with these verbs in their present tense form how should I interpret もう? I'll give some examples: > 1. 日本語を学ぶのは難しすぎるよ。もうやめる！ > 2. 私はそれをもう諦める > 3. もうこの男のことは諦めろ > 4. もうほっといてくれ！ I hope that's enough examples. My question is how to interpret and translate those usages of もう. Are these translations correct? > 1. Learning Japanese is too hard. I quit already! > 2. I'm going to give up on that already. > 3. Give up on this man already > 4. Leave me alone already! None of those translations seem correct to me, but I'm not sure how else to translate them. Wouldn't もう here rather be closer in meaning to "anymore"? Like in example 1, doesn't this translation make more sense: "Learning Japanese is too hard. I'm not gonna do it anymore!"? I just don't see how "already" is what's intended, yet I'm also not sure that's it's not. I apologize if my questions are unclear. I wasn't sure how to best word my doubts about もう. I feel I lack a basic understanding of it, but dictionaries and guides haven't proved sufficient for me. If I was unclear on anything or my question is written poorly please feel free to ask for clarification.

Answer 1

MOU is mostly used as "already" or "anymore," depending on the context. It's used to show frustration or resignation.

日本語を学ぶのは難しすぎるよ。もうやめる! - Learning Japanese is too difficult. Stop already!

私はそれをもう諦める. - I'm going to give it up.

もうこの男のことは諦めろ. - Jeez, just dump his ass already.

もうほっといてくれ！- Leave me the f*** alone already.

Other common examples:

もういいよ。- That's enough already.

もう知らないよ。- I don't know you anymore. (cutting someone out of your life)