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This phrase comes from がばいばあちゃん p. 169, ch. 13.

The whole sentence reads: 俺が振り返ったのと、おっちゃんが箱の中の豆腐を自分の手で潰したのは、ほとんど同時だった。

The context for this sentence is the following. The protagonist, 昭広, is told by his grandma to go buy some 崩れた豆腐, which is sold at half the price of the tofu in good condition. They are very poor, so this is their custom. However, when he arrives at the shop, all of the tofu is in good condition and it appears he cannot buy this half-price tofu.

My translation of the sentence would be:

Just as I turned it around, the shopkeeper at the same time crushed the tofu with his own hand.

My question is about the form ~たのと. Is this construction normal. Is the reading: When such-and-such had (just) happened. I find it unusual the ~た系 is used followed by (explanatory?) particle の. If anyone could clear up this grammar point, it would be much appreciated.

Edit:

How is this related to 〜たのは? How would you translate/explain this temporal clause given this relation?

Edit 2:

The two の's are nominalisers. The と links the two time events and is not in fact temporal と as I first assumed. That's clarified in the comments below :-)

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marked as duplicate by broccoli forest, naruto grammar May 17 '17 at 4:04

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  • I'm ok with this being marked as a duplicate. The duplicated post in question is answered with the fact that の is a nominaliser. But I'm not sure how exactly that relates to 〜たのと. So, it doesn't really answer my question. If you could clarify, or point out how it does answer the question, that would be a big help. – Robert May 17 '17 at 3:57
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    Um... are you aware that the first 振り返ったの and the next 潰したの is the same grammar? – broccoli forest May 17 '17 at 4:00
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    Yes these の are nominalizers, but I prefer this explanation which more specifically explains this pattern: I don't understand what のも means in this sentence – naruto May 17 '17 at 4:01
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    Ah! I get it now! I thought the と formed a temporal clause. Really the syntax/meaning is EventA+EventB were at the same time. – Robert May 17 '17 at 4:02
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    @Robert I think there are only two events (振り返った and 潰した), which happened almost at the same time. – naruto May 17 '17 at 4:03

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