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I am trying to say something like "The button labeled 'blue' at the lower right is red."

I know that adjectives can be connected together with their て-form. It seems like maybe the the same should happen with verbs, but the ordering and sentence connection implied by the て-form makes this sound awkward to me. For some reason, I also cannot find examples on this.

The two verbs I am thinking of are ある and 付けられる (labeled?).

My current translation is 右下にあって「blue」と付けられたボタンは赤いです。

May someone explain how to connect with multiple noun-modifying verbs? Also, what is a natural translation for my example sentence?

Thanks.

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I think you are referring to when verbs are connected by the て form because you want to express that their tense is identical and the two or more verbs are connected in sequence.

りんごをあらってたべた。　I washed the apple and ate it.

but when verbs are used to modify a noun, you need the verb tenses to agree with the state of the thing they are modifying.

So "The button (that is) on the bottom right, labelled "blue" is red." should be translated 右下にある「blue」と付けられたボタンは赤いです。

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  • I see. Just to make sure with a longer sentence, "The shiny, red button labeled 'blue' at the lower right is beautiful." would be キラキラしてる赤くて右下にある「blue」と付けられたボタンは美しいです。, right?
    – Denis Li
    Jun 25, 2018 at 17:08
  • @DenisLi Right except the order. Japanese has implicit adjective order which is often the reverse of that in English. So 右下にある「blue」と付けられた赤くてキラキラしてるボタンは美しいです。 but more naturally IMO 右下にある「blue」と書かれた赤いキラキラしたボタンはきれいです。
    – broccoli forest
    Jun 25, 2018 at 18:38
  • @broccoliforest Thanks for the clarification. But is there a reason why you use 赤い instead of 赤くて in your second example? The way I know it would use 赤くて.
    – Denis Li
    Jun 25, 2018 at 19:07
  • @DenisLi I don't have a definite answer, but in this context it will kind of sound as if you're saying "shiny and red" (or "red and shiny").
    – broccoli forest
    Jun 25, 2018 at 20:37

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