Questions tagged [relative-clauses]
連体修飾節（関係節）. A type of subordinate clause which modifies a noun phrase.
192
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Syntax of 住み心地のいい小さな家
I was randomly reading a grammar book (despite I'm still being in N5) and found the follow sentence:
住み心地のいい小さな家
The sentence was alone, without context, and it was translated to something like "...
3
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1answer
303 views
Can the passive agent be gapped?
Can the passive agent be gapped in a relative clause? I mean, can the head of a relative clause be the passive agent (the word that would be marked by に)?
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0answers
50 views
Explanation for 変わった and 似た as adjectivals
I often see the two verbs 変わる and 似る used in their た-form when modifying nouns and I'm not really sure exactly how to make sense of them.
変わる: e.g. as in 「変わった人」. Here I'm wondering why it's not just ...
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2answers
134 views
Verbs joined with くて and modifying a noun
I understand that くて joins verbs but what happens if they modify a noun? For example:
お金がなくて食べない料理 - I don't have money and hence this is food that I won't eat
見た目がなくて届かない想い - I don't have the looks ...
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1answer
157 views
Can't understand why this sentence is written this way
The sentence I am talking about is ジュースが出る大きいな桃 .
I don't understand why 大きいな桃 is written at the end. I would say something like:
ジュースが大きいな桃から出る
Thanks
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1answer
63 views
Which of the following forms are allowed in relative clauses?
I recently discovered that Relative clauses are mostly made with dictionary form verbs/adjectives, but [the answer here]says my “...
sentence indeed has three relative clauses marked by (1), (2), and ...
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1answer
92 views
Is the 出し in the following sentence a relative clause?
Is the 出し -which I believe to be 出す- in the following text a relative clause, as the 行動 is a noun?
「ここにじっとしていてもしょうがない………か」
自分を奮い立たせるために、わざと自分の考えを声に出し行動を始めた。
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1answer
115 views
Ambiguity when describing with verbs, e.g. 酒を飲ませる人
Here's a small thing I never thought about for too long as I always kinda dismissed it due to the context usually being clear enough, but now I've gotten curious and I figured I'd ask away:
Let's take ...
2
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1answer
115 views
Why is the particle omitted in this relative clause?
I am doing this exercise from wasabi-jpn.com. The exercise includes this sentence:
The sweater (I) bought last week was expensive.
Apparently, the correct answer is
先週買ったセーターは高かったです。
I realize that ...
0
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1answer
121 views
Can I use a relative clause like this?
Let's say I wanted to render the sentence "Money's worth what we make it worth." into Japanese. I'd break it down like so:
money-topic 貨幣は
is worth-suru verb 値打ちする
"what we make it ...
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1answer
81 views
Please help me to deconstruct the grammar of this relative clause: この法律に違反する可能性がある政治の団体が活動をやめています。
This is an excerpt from an NHK easy article talking about the new law passed in Hong Kong:
この法律に違反する可能性がある政治の団体が活動をやめています。
この法律に this law
違反する可能性がある政治の団体が活動 activities (by?) government groups (...
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1answer
73 views
Noun or Adjective?
I am new to qualifying nouns.
Why is the adjective of 好きな used here instead of just 好き as a noun?
猫が好きな女の人は私の友達です
Does that means it is wrong to say:
猫が好きあの女の人は私の友達です
I am used to seeing 猫が好き,...
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1answer
75 views
Can a て conjunction be used in a relative clause?
I considered a situation where two modifying clauses are joined by a て conjunction and wondered if such a thing was too ambiguous to be commonly used. (Brackets show what is being used as a modifying ...
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1answer
106 views
Can one noun be modified by both a clause and a の marked noun?
I have tried to create a sentence wherein a noun is modified by both a clause and の marked noun, but found it to be difficult with my current understanding:
Intended sentence: I stole the king’s ...
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1answer
196 views
Object of a sentence ambiguity
The sentence: 守りたいのはあなた
This sentence can either mean "The one I want to protect is you" or it can mean "the one who wants to protect (someone else) is you". Any way to distinguish besides context?
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1answer
92 views
Is the main clause in the relative clause construct an actual clause?
I know that relative clause compounds are generally made with the following format.
sentence/verb/adjective + noun
My Genki I textbook supports this with the following example of a relative ...
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0answers
67 views
Relative clause confusion: “whose company I am leaving” or “who is leaving the company” [closed]
I came across this one in a study book:
本日、退社することになりました社長を初め皆様には本当にお世話になりました。
The translation reads 'Today I am leaving the company, and I would like to thank not only the President, but everybody.' ...
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3answers
202 views
The meaning of ”あれは魔術師に与えられた祝福”
I translated the sentence "あれは魔術師に与えられた祝福” to something along the line of "That is something that was given a blessing by a sorcerer" but in the translation that I compared it to, the translator ...
3
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1answer
137 views
Relative Clauses and Adjective Placement
How would you add adjectives inside a relative clause to the thing being modified? Is the placement set?
For example, in this sentence, can "new" come directly before computer (1) or should it be ...
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2answers
130 views
Question about 変な奴だって思う子がいたら
Im reading a manga called Yotsubato and this phrase occurs when Yotsuba dad is talking to a girl witch is his neighbour.
He says: 変な奴だって思う子がいたら.
The meaning is: If you see a girl that makes you ...
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2answers
147 views
verbs with adjectival function?
In the sentence "忘れられない夜にする" does the verb "忘れる" have the function of an adjective? What is the meaning of the phrase? Is there any way to make verbs have a Japanese adjectival function?
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1answer
218 views
負かした俺: who beat whom in this relative clause?
Context: Riku is a boxer of Baba gym. Tokorozawa is a retired boxer of Baba gym. Ishigami is a retired boxer of an unmentioned gym. Tokorozawa beat Ishigami in the past. Recently, Tokorozawa asked a ...
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1answer
93 views
How to say “the one I sent the letter to”
I sent him the letter - 彼に手紙を送ってあげた
He was the one who sent me the letter - 手紙を送ってくれたのは、彼だった
He was the one I sent the letter to - ???
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2answers
249 views
Is 誰か行きたい人 a form of double-headed relative clause?
I came across the phrase "誰か行きたい人" in this thread and I think it would be used in a context like
"誰か行きたい人がいるか？".
However I am kind of confused by how it works grammatically.
Is 誰か行きたい a relative ...
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2answers
254 views
Aren't 「から」 and 「ので」 closer to the meaning of “because” rather than “so”?
To my understanding all particles affect the word or clause that appears before them: 「駅から家まで行く。」 means "I'll go from the station to my house" rather than "I'll go the station from house to go".
So ...
2
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1answer
297 views
Help parsing a sentence with two を
Context: in the Dead Tube manga, a villain is talking about how she turned people into zombies by giving them a hallucinogenic drug and explains that they are "contagious".
...
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1answer
138 views
What tense of a verb should be used in the subordinate clause?
In the following example, what tense of the verb should be used: past or non-past? If both are possible will the meaning change?
Children will eat anything their mother brings home.
...
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1answer
670 views
How to say “Why I started studying Japanese”
I have a Japanese assignment that requires me to write about anything I want. I decided that I wanted to write about why I want to learn Japanese. I think the title should be "Why I want to study ...
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2answers
210 views
The exquisite depths of 和菓子's mind
Consider the following quote from this article:
和菓子は季節とともに変化するもの。パッと見て何を模したかわかる形もあれば、どんな意味が込められているのか考えるものもあり……。
As I understand it, the last clause is supposed to mean "there are ones (ie. certain ...
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1answer
213 views
Meaning for 昔から大好きな親戚の姉さん
I sometimes hear 姉さん used as just another way of addressing an older woman but I don't understand the usage of 親戚の姉さん. 親戚(shinseki) is relative so does Shinseki no Nesan mean the literal older sister ...
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2answers
192 views
Help with showing lack of a 'because' construct in translating the bolded sentence?
Two characters are having the following conversation:
A:「あなたにも殺し屋になってもらうの。ツヴァイ」
“You too will become a assassin. Zwei.”
B:「馬鹿言うなよ……。なんで僕が、そんなことやらなきゃならないんだよ⁉」
“Don’t say something so ...
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1answer
149 views
Which clause is the だけ in 身の危険が迫った時にだけ発現する能力だから attached to?
身の危険が迫った時にだけ発現する能力だから
I know there are two relative clauses in the above sentence, as shown below.
Example structure is [verb/sentence]noun/main clause]
Relative clause 1: [身の危険が迫った]時]
...
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2answers
186 views
Questions about Noun+が+Adjective
Here is a phrase:
ねだんが たかいレストランは あまり すきじゃない
I don't like high price restaurant very much
Now, the questions.
If I used たかいねだん レストラン, would it be wrong? Or would mean something different?
The が ...
3
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1answer
103 views
Is it possible to make a relative clause & main clause using a formal noun, such as はず?
I know that a relative clause and main clause are formed when you have a construct of [sentence/verb] + noun in Japanese. While attempting to translate the following sentence, I found three of the ...
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1answer
219 views
Is the function of this ある a pre-noun adjectival, or is it a verb that forms a relative clause?
I'm going over my previously done translations to see if any need further editing, and the following comes up.
背後{はいご}で聞{き}き覚{おぼ}えのある声{こえ}がして、思{おも}わず一歩後{いっぽあと}ずさってしまった。
I relearned yesterday that ...
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1answer
146 views
Using prepositions in relative clauses?
Example:
Let's say I want to reference "the bridge that I ran underneath".
I would presume that the sentence would be:
下に走った橋
I feel like there's a lot of ambiguity here, but I guess that's ...
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0answers
83 views
Delimiting prenominal relative clauses
I encountered this sentence:
提供サービスごとの適切な値付けを行い、事業が継続的・発展的に拡大する戦略を立案する
Is there any way of knowing if this is
提供サービスごとの適切な値付けを行い、事業が継続的・発展的に拡大する戦略を立案する
or
提供サービスごとの適切な値付けを行い、事業が継続的・...
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3answers
115 views
noun adjective grammar
学校の窓ガラスを割った生徒に反省文を書かせました。 in this phrase why did we use two を particles, does it mean two objects are here ?? can anyone explan the sentence structure..any similar examples also
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98 views
Relationship between temporal/adverbial nouns modified by relative clauses with verbs
I came across with the following sentence:
受験勉強で疲弊した深夜、グレープフルーツのへそに親指を挿入した瞬間、胸からぷしゅっと黄色の粒子が噴出した。
I was doubtful about how the sentences separated by commas were related to each other, so I asked a ...
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2answers
240 views
Head-internal relative clauses
I am trying to figure out head-internal relative clauses. A paper I looked at presented two versions of the same sentence, one with the head word (りんご) outside the relative clause:
[皿の上にあった]...
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3answers
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How to say “that” as in “the cow that ate” in Japanese?
I'm sure there are plenty of resources on this topic, but I don't know what keywords to use to find them.
I want to know how you might create a noun by saying that the noun does something.
For ...
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1answer
68 views
Differentiation between subjects in relative clauses?
how do you distinguish between saying for example “A person he likes” and “A person who likes him” if they would both be 彼が好きな人？is there a way around that? different wording? a different particle? i ...
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2answers
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Connecting sentences with dictionary form verbs?
This is from the "intro" of the novel talking in general about sayayins . It seems that is like a sort of poetic/archaic style as the grammar doesn't make sense to me.
彼らは戦いを好み、...
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1answer
135 views
Relative clauses: 多い人 vs 多くの人
I was practising a grammar pattern, so in my personal example I wrote:
多いオーストラリア人
However, a native speaker corrected me with:
多くのオーストラリア人
I understand that in relative clauses that adjectives ...
3
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1answer
88 views
Relative pronouns in せずにはいられない + noun
天を仰ぎ両手を合わせずにはいられない結果が得られている
In the above excerpt, I'm not 100% sure how to connect the 結果 with the rest of the sentence. I do understand that the meaning is something like "Obtained result that you ...
3
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2answers
234 views
Will expression retain the same definition if particle is changed?
「ここにじっとしていてもしょうがない………か」
自分を奮い立たせるために、わざと自分の考えを声に出し行動を始めた。
I came across the expression 声を出す on jisho.org. I don't know if replacing the expression's を with に (because を is already used earlier in ...
3
votes
2answers
172 views
“~たい”-form and associated particle usage
My question is about the "~たい"-form ("want to").
I know that in a sentence containing this form, you can use は to mark the person who desires something. For example, "私は、東京に行きたい".
But then I came ...
4
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1answer
115 views
passive ambiguity in this sentence
そう言って今度は頭を下げられる俺。
After saying that, she directs a bow at me.
the other party is making a request so there is no doubt in context who is bowing.
In isolation i find rearanging this relative ...
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1answer
167 views
無謀とも言えるその計画に (Reckless can be said that plan to)
I have seen the above construction only twice online, but it sounds like one of those sentences where the word order has been moved around in order to give it maybe a Shakespearean effect, or samurai ...
4
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1answer
238 views
ではない in Relative Clauses
I have read in several sources that it is grammatically incorrect to use は (topic particle) in relative clauses. However, I am almost certain that I have seen constructions like the following:
...
