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From Sakura Tips podcast episode 615. パッキング, there is a transcript to the podcast. I'm having difficulty understanding due to my confusion regarding word/phrase ordering.

Original transcript:

昨日パッキングをしました。

日本語ではパッキングともいいますし、荷造りともいいます。

私は1年間に出張も合わせて10回ほどパッキングをしています。

特に去年は出張が多かったので、もっとですね。

15回以上はパッキングをして、泊まりに行っていました。

なので私はパッキングに慣れています。

大学生の頃はそういうことに慣れていなかったので、2泊3日の旅行でもとても荷物が多かったです。

普段は家でも使っていないようなものまで、キャリーケースの中に入れていました。

ですが、今はパッキングのプロなので、2週間の旅行でも、少ない荷物で行くことができます。

I've highlighted in bold the two sentences I'm having trouble understanding:

  1. 特に去年は出張が多かったので、もっとですね。

I translated this as "In particular, because in the last year I had a lot of business trips, it was more."

These 特に and もっとですね parts are confusing me. Which verb/adjective is the adverb 特に modifying? Is it modifying 多かった?Or is it modifying もっとです?And regarding もっとです... is it referring to 去年?Or is it referring to the implied now state (i.e. 今)?

  1. 15回以上はパッキングをして、泊まりに行っていました。

I translated this as "After the 15th business trip, I would pack and stay overnight."

To me, this was a weird sentence because I'm not used to having the frequency of something as a topic... did I get the translation right? I think it's supposed to mean something like "I would pack and stay overnight, but only after the 15th business trip"

1 Answer 1

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  1. This 特に is working as a sentence adverb, aka disjunct. In your translation, "In particular" is also a disjunct, because it doesn't modify any particular word. This もっとです means "it was more than 10", referring to the number of packing he does in a year.
  2. 15回 is "15 times" rather than "15th". You usually need to say 15回 or 15回 to make it mean "15th", although it's omitted in some situations. 15回以上は means "more than 15 times". This は is not a topic marker but は meaning "at least". If you want to say "after the 15th", it would be 15回は or 15回目より後は.
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  • A similar question on もっとですね。I would have thought to have used もっとでしたね。since the sentence is about the past (去年). However, the "present tense" ですね。was used. I'm guessing this is permitted since it's tenseless?
    – richizy
    Aug 6 at 17:36
  • @richizy もっとでした is also correct. I think this is another example of historical present.
    – naruto
    Aug 7 at 2:06

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