2

Hopefully, the two following sentences are grammatically valid:

旅行の後で帰った時話を話す。

旅行の後で帰った時話が話される。

If so, can I use either as a basis for a relative clause modifying 話; are the two following sentences valid? Do they differ in meaning?

土産話は旅行の後で帰った時話す話です。

土産話は旅行の後で帰った時話される話です。

What I mean to say is "Souvenir stories are stories told after coming back from a trip". Does either sentence convey that meaning, or are they both wrong altogether?

1 Answer 1

4

Your sentences have several flaws unrelated to your main concern. 話を話す ("to talk a talk"?) is weird, and you have to say 話をする instead. 旅行の後で帰る sounds clumsy and redundant, and it's better to say 旅行から帰る. When you introduce the definition of a word, it's better to use とは instead of は.

After fixing these, yes, you can say all of the following.

  • 旅行から帰った時話をする。
  • 旅行から帰った時話がされる。
  • 土産話とは、旅行から帰った時する話です。
  • 土産話とは、旅行から帰った時される話です。

する話 and される話 effectively refer to the same thing in this case because people can automatically find the implicit subject that makes the most sense. This question may be related.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .