Questions tagged [relative-clauses]
連体修飾節（関係節）. A type of subordinate clause which modifies a noun phrase.
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道を行ったところ meaning "just down the road"?
In the sentence
うちの前の道を行ったところの家の男の子ったら、うっかりして指に《スーパーグルー》をくっつけてしまって、その指で鼻をさわったのよ
I would translate this as
There is a boy just down our street, who carelessly got glue on his finger and then picked ...
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How often do embedded relative clauses occur in Japanese conversation?
I think the question is clear enough. I read an article regarding how English speakers comprehend embedded clauses in Japanese, and how in general it takes more time to comprehend a sentence that ...
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Can aru be used as an adjective?
So I have this sentence すべての会社は、才能ある人材を育成すべきだ. I'm focusing on 才能ある人材. I'm guessing that 才能ある is short for 才能がある. But then aru is followed by 人材 which is another noun. The translation is "people ...
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Past vs present tense in relative clause
I found this thread that was really useful, but I'm still have some doubts, especially because this other thread seems to suggest that there isn't significative difference between using one or the ...
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Cant understand this relative clause
There is this little article that im using to study japanese and one of its passages says:
国立感染症研究所によると、約3000の病院で6月25日までの1週間にヘルパンギーナがうつったことがわかった人は、1つの病院に平均で5.79人いました。今までの10年でいちばん多くなりました。
I cant ...
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How does one explicitly express “the tree behind which I sleep” and similar things? [duplicate]
My intuition says to me that this should be a simple “私が後ろで寝ている木”, or for instance, as a hypothetical example, to express “The knife inside of which I cut the meat” opposed to “the knife I cut the ...
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a question about に in the paragragh below
私たちは働くとき、何らかの社会的役割を担（注1）っていて、その役割に応じた結果が求められます。そして、期待に応えたときに得られるものが報酬（注2）や自身の成長です。要するに、私たちは働くとき「得る」前に求められているものを「与える」ことになります。仕事の本質（注3）は得ることではなく、自分に求められているものを人に与える、すなわち「人の役に立つ」ことなのです。
I am confused by ...
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Separate clauses or one long relative clause?
The Japanese version of "Eternal Love" from Final Fantasy XIII has some lyrics arranged in a way that is slightly confusing to me. For example,
あなたとの愛が このままずっと続きますように
夜空に願うの
この手は まだ 離せない
...
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は vs が when the subject is modified by a relative clause
Please note that the question is not whether the subject in a relative clause should be followed by は or が. (In that case I am aware that the thematic は cannot be used.)
I was reading section II.2, Wa ...
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Can the past progressive tense ever "overlap" into the present time?
I know that the tense of Japanese subordinate clauses is always relative to the time the main clause happens (which is different than in English). But consider the following:
子供が[昼寝]{ひるね}をしていた
...
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Relative clause or separate phrases?
I'm wondering if the following:
話そうよ星空に二人の夢
Is a relative clause with 話そうよ preceding the rest of the line or two separate sentences? The part that's throwing me off is the よ particle. Does it ...
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How to interpret 目と目あって without connecting particles?
The Japanese version of the FF8 song "Eyes On Me," from the Final Fantasy Song Book "Mahoroba" album, has several relative clauses without any particles connecting the verbs and ...
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the use of した to modify nouns
Recently I came across this phrase:
血液型に関係したことって、日本では、すごく人気がある
Why is 関係した in the past and not in the present? In this case, is there any difference between them?
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Meaning of 繋ぎ合う
I'm currently translating the Japanese versions of some Final Fantasy songs. I found the compound verb "繋ぎ合えた" in the song "Yakusoku no Basho" from FFXIII-2 as a relative clause, ...
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What makes the so-called "体言止め" to be independent finite sentences? Why can't other languages have such feature?
Maybe this question should also be posted into the linguistic part. In Japanese a NP/DP like "世界三大唐木の一つとして有名な”黒檀”。(その中でも特に綺麗な...)"may compose a sentence by itself, and this is impossible in ...
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Is 「(Non-Past Tense Action A)前に(Past Tense Action B)」technically ambiguous?
From How to appropriately pair tenses in subordinate and main clauses?, one of the answers provides:
歯を磨く前に食べた。
Problem: Is this sentence technically ambigious, in that it could mean: "I ate ...
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Question about sentences that qualify nouns
(私が)望む未来
(未来を)望む私
I used the same verb behind two diffent nouns.
However the Subject-Verb-Object remains the same.
The first sentence standing for: "The future I desire.".
Would the second ...
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What is the meaning of 以来となる
This sentence comes from a science portal about the nobel prize
2018年の本庶佑氏以来となる、日本人の医学生理学賞受賞はならなかった。
I believe it means something like "A japanese person has not received the medical physiology ...
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Phenomenon of omitting the head noun of a relative clause
Take this dialogue for example, where A and B talk about a certain 田中さん:
A: ところで田中さんって覚えてる？
B: あ、このあいだパーティーにいた？
I made it up, so please excuse any unnatural aspects. The important part is B's answer. ...
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Why is ある required in あるはずない?
From the first episode of Death Note, the main character utters to himself that something can't be possible:
ふん、まさかな…そんなわけあるはずない
Question: What is the ある doing in this sentence? If はずない is an i-...
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Confused about object of 迎える in this sentence
I am currently on lesson 9 of Japan Foundation's まるごと B1-1. There is a text about a woman celebrating Christmas for the first time at her American partner's home. It begins with the sentence "...
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に particle with 乾く and 響く
I'm playing a visual novel and there is the following sentence:
時折響く、司会者のバカみたいにカン高い笑い声。
真っ白くて日当たりの良いこの部屋に、乾き、響いていた。
The 乾き here is confusing. I know it might be related to 日当たりの良い部屋, but either the ...
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「ずっとお母さんがコーチは嫌だ」
ずっとお母さんがコーチは嫌だ
I don't want my mom to always be my coach.
I am wondering what grammatical role お母さんがコーチ takes. Is it a noun phrase? Why is there nothing between コーチ and は. Also do these work?
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Difference between ことのできる and ことができる [duplicate]
I came across this sentence while reading a visual novel (Clannad):
そして、クラスの中で、唯一俺が心を許して話すことのできる人間だった。
Why does this sentence use ことのできる instead of ことができる for the potential form? Does it change the ...
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その店で去年{○働いていた/×働いている}男性がテレビに出た。 - why is that?
According to this website (I think it is 初級を教える人のための日本語文法ハンドブック), if there are no time adverbs in an adjective clause, you have to use ていた or ている to mean an action in the past.
However, if a time ...
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入れた男 ending a sentence, is 男 the subject
I recently started to learn some Japanese, to get some practice I'm trying to translate and analyse some bits of One Piece, that I'm already familiar with. Right at the very start there's this ...
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Relative clauses with various nouns
As far as I know, the relative clause should be placed immediately in front of the noun it modifies. For example, in sentence [木の下で休んでいる人の眼鏡], relative clause [木の下で休んでいる] modifies the noun [人]. Then ...
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The effect of adjectives on adjectival verbs
Recently I was reading「鶴の笛」by (林芙美子) and came across this sentence:
足の悪い鶴は、みんなのいなくなったさびしい沼地のふちの葦のしげったところに立ってみんなが飛びたって行った空をみていました。
The English translation of this sentence by J. D. Wisgo says:
The ...
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Choice of 入れた in 缶に入れた蚊取り線香
A passage from the second chapter of 夜は短し歩けよ乙女 by 森見登美彦:
先ほどまで、ご主人は奥さんと一緒に本棚に囲まれた内側にいて、レジを打っていました。私と樋口さんが姿を見せると、あとを大学生のアルバイトに任せて出てきてくれました。そして案内されたのは店舗の背後にある木立の奥です。そこには缶に入れた蚊取り線香の煙がふんわり漂い、...
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彼がいる場所、彼がいるその場所、彼がいる学校
I am trying to understand what makes a 文節 内の関係 or 外の関係. And if 外の関係, which one.
彼がいる場所
彼女と初めて会ったところ
Am I correct in thinking these two can only be 外の関係の内容補充修飾節, because I can't put the 被修飾名詞 back ...
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Meaning of 巡り合う好機 in this passage
A passage from the first chapter of 夜は短し歩けよ乙女 by 森見登美彦:
あな恐ろしやと思いながら肩身の狭い思いをしてカウンターをすり抜けると、その奥に隠れ家のような薄暗い空間があって、羽貫さんが四人のナイスミドルの方々に交じってお喋りしていました。
紅い布張りのソファに座ったおじさん方は、皆さん紅いネクタイを締めています。...
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What is the Order of Operations for translating sentences which have both passive form and relative clauses?
The bolded sentence in the following excerpt contains the passive form of a verb which is also being used in a relative clause. Should I translate the verb as a relative clause first, then transcribe ...
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Noun+の+adjective+Noun: エネルギー消費の大きい生き方
エネルギー消費の大きい生き方に敬礼
Those who expend great energy in their lives, I salute you.
I've seen this pattern used several times, Noun+の+adjective+Noun, but I've never really understood if the adjective is ...
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Nuances and correct usage of verbs modifying nouns
I found this very interesting older post and there are couple of things I am uncertain about.
Could I also technically write "ロックしたSIM/ロックしているSIM" to mean "ロックされたSIM/ ロックされているSIM", ...
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Is this relative clause correct?
彼女からは警戒心が剥き出しの刺々しい雰囲気はない
In this sentence, 刺々しい雰囲気 appears as the noun here and being modified by 警戒心が剥き出し. But how could a complete sentence like 警戒心が剥き出し take the particle の to modify another noun? ...
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Is 「子供を映画へ連れて行く約束した」 ungrammatical?
子供を映画へ連れて行く約束をした。
I promised to take my child to a movie.
Here's my parsing:
子供を映画へ連れて行く | relative clause
約束をした | verb phrase
We need a noun in order for it to be modified by a relative clause, so ...
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Question regarding subjects in relative clauses
I may be completely off the mark here, but this my understanding. I am a native speaker of neither Japanese nor English.
２０１８年、SNSで実施した１２９４人の読書のアンケート...
Does this sentence mean that it is a survey ...
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How to parse アニメが日本語に興味を持ったきっかけ
アニメが日本語に興味を持ったきっかけというのもあったし、普通にアニメも好きだったんです。
I don't understand how the part "アニメが日本語に興味を持った" can be a modifier for the noun きっかけ if I'm talking about myself. The way I would go about ...
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What does the の do in それ以上は一切の言い表しようもないほど ...?
本当に死んでいる....それ以上は一切の言い表しようもないほど....彼女は完全に死んでいた。
My understanding is that 一切の言い表しようもない is a clause inside ほど, but I do not understand what 一切の means. I know that の can sometimes mark the subject in ...
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How to tell which noun is being modified in 二人だけの世界
In the song あの夢をなぞって (Ano Yume o Nazotte), the third line is
音の無い二人だけの世界で聞こえた言葉は「好きだよ」.
The translations to English give this as some variation of
In that soundless world with only two of us, the ...
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meaning of というように [duplicate]
I'm interested in the grammatical function and overall precise translation of the conjunction made of two particles(?) in the following clause. My attempt: "being tall, (as/like/for example/of/...
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A counter example to the rule on tense in relative clauses?
In the comments to this question I learnt that
明日、林さんに会うときに、この本を返そう
and
明日、林さんに会ったときに、この本を返そう
have the same meaning, although 会った is more common.
With my current understanding, that the tense in a ...
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その小説には、夫に先に死なれた妻の悲しみが丁寧に書かれていた。
その小説には、夫に先に死なれた妻の悲しみが丁寧に書かれていた。
I was always taught that in a passive sentence like the one written above, the DOER in the action is marked by に, So in the case above the doer is the husband, correct? ...
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How to parse 「店は人の多いところがいいです」
店は人の多いところがいいです
Book translation: stores are better (to be) located at heavily trafficked places.
My question is related to Relative Clauses: 多い人 vs 多くの人 in which the answerer provides a similar ...
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Sentence construction 活躍をしてる現場
他のヒーローが俺くらい活躍をしてる現場なんて見たことがない
In this sentence, the main noun in the clause before なんて is 現場, so I would understand this sentence as "I haven't seen a place that the other heroes flourish as ...
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How does the transitive and intransitive verbs work when modifying a noun?
How do they work in relation with the particles? Like for example わたしの知らないこと vs 私に分からないこと. I notice that the 知らない doesn’t really go with the particle に like in the other one. Why is that and do ...
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Is が wrong in sentences like 私がplaceに行ったことがある?
I saw someone getting corrected for using が in a ことがある sentence, and I was wondering why using が in sentences specifically like 私がplaceに行ったことがある is wrong, I can't seem to wrap my head around it.
I was ...
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Sentence seems to have multiple relative clause「気の合う人々のいる場を見つけたら、休まずに通うこと。」
気の合う人々のいる場を見つけたら、休まずに通うこと。
When you find a place with people that matches your interest...
To understand this sentence I tried changing it into
"(あなたは)気が合う人々がいる場"
And I think I seemed to ...
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difference between のか/か in question clause
i want to settle this once and for all since i cant find any legitimate source about this grammar pattern and i see very different answers online.
some say they are interchangable, some say the nuance ...
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