7
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「は」vs 「が」 in subordinate clauses
は serves as the topic marker of the main clause. In subordinate clauses, basically you cannot use は. You have to use が to mark a subject in subordinate clauses. (There are exceptions, which I will ...
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6
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clause ending 分
I would say the sense of this 分 usage is to indicate a kind of "proportional increase" - the 分 indicates that whatever comes after it is increasing in proportion to what comes before it.
In the first ...
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6
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A complex structure: Xが～するYについて、～する者は
しかし彼が 常日頃吐き出す思想について 認める者は誰一人いなかった。
The portuguese translation is like "people doesn't agree with his ideas"
The translation is correct.
I translated like "he doens't care about people ideas"
...
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5
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Can I use こと or の to say "Everyone said that ～"?
Do you know the と particle (aka the quotative particle)? When you quote someone's statement, you need to use と instead of を or こと. This sentence should at least be:
皆さん彼女はきれいだから賢くないと話した。
This ...
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4
votes
On the interaction between tense harmony and factivity in (dialects of) Japanese
(Disclaimer: I am a native Japanese speaker, but not an expert of language)
(a) 太郎は自分が癌だと知っていた
(b) 太郎は自分が癌だったと知っていた
I feel there is a slight difference in meaning between (a) and (b).
Sentence (a) ...
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4
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は or が in the example "朝起きるとき、鳥 ( ) いつも歌います"?
In your example, "私は" sounds unnatural because it gives too much emphasis on "私", while actually it's so much unimportant that most of native Japanese speakers would omit it at all.
You have also to ...
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Why is は used in phrases with はず, if they are formal nouns that take a subordinate clause?
Technically, 高い and 高かった are the short subordinate clauses that modify はず. Japanese relative clauses can be very short. As you said, the word marked with は is working as a topic of the entire sentence....
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3
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相対テンス in 名詞修飾 is also true when it comes to アスペクト（テイル) or other forms like 〜てしまう, etc?
The way you phrased your question doesn’t seem quite right to me. An aspect marker may or may not be added to a verb. When it is, the resulting inflection still contains a part that indicates tense at ...
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3
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Can someone help break down this sentence どこにあるか知っていますか?
どこにあるか is an embedded question: Where is it?
知っていますか is the main sentence: Do you know?
Putting these two together, you get
Do you know where it is?
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3
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は or が in the example "朝起きるとき、鳥 ( ) いつも歌います"?
(First, 起きるとき means when someone is about to get up from bed, not just when someone gets up.)
All the combinations are possible and each of them changes the meaning or the structure of the sentence.
...
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3
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「か」 or 「と」 as a subordinate clause?
To say "think that (some sentence here)", 思う always takes the quotative particle, と. So 映画館に行ったか思いました is ungrammatical.
The following two sentences are grammatical:
映画館に行ったと思いました。
I thought (...
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3
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What is the use of ごと in this clause?
彼らが住む modifies 惑星, so 彼らが住む惑星 means "the planet they lived on." The suffix ごと means "as well as," "together with," "along with," or "and all" (as リンゴを皮ごと食べる – "eat an apple, peel and all"). Here, ごと ...
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3
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だ versus な in causal subordinate clauses
This explanation is tautological but I just have to say it's because から follows a terminal form, which of the copula is だ while の is a kind of noun, which needs an attributive form to be modified, ...
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3
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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?
This is probably much less complicated than you seem to be thinking.
Let’s look at this sentence first.
その店で働いている男性がテレビに出た。
What it means is actually ambiguous. The man may be working in that store ...
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3
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What is this ~れ verb form used in the middle of the sentence? Is it ~られて/~れて without the て?
It is a te-form of 包まれる = 包む + れる.
To me, it is the same as 包まれて, but using 包まれ is more literary. Using te-form alone is called 連用中止法 (see this for example). Generally it gives a succinct impression. ...
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2
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は or が in the example "朝起きるとき、鳥 ( ) いつも歌います"?
It actually depends on the context, but the "usual" way to say this is:
私が朝起きるとき、鳥がいつも歌っています。
When I wake up, (I find) birds are always singing.
が should be used after 私 because 私 is in a ...
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2
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An unclear form in a song
I doubt the lyrics are "perfectly imitating a Sengoku-period Late Middle Japanese". This is not typical 古語 I learned at high school. 見た and 焼いて are modern 口語 and were not used in those days. 起きられぬ ...
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2
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Sentence structure + 人がわるい
I think your source of confusion is the interpretation of のに, which in this case is sentence-end のに described in the following questions:
What does のに mean at the end of this sentence?
What is a good ...
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How can there be 2 X が in this sentence?
There are nested clauses, and that's why there are two が's. To break down:
新しいコロナウイルスは人にうつる。
The novel coronavirus infects people.
(Note that うつる is an intransitive verb in Japanese)
新しいコロナウイルスがうつる人
...
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2
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Is どんなことでも失敗したら a whole clause or two separate clauses?
I would parse it as:
[どんなことでも][失敗したら、人のせいにしてはなりません]。
[No matter what it is,] [if you fail, don't blame others].
The [人]{ひと} here means [他人]{たにん/ひと}, "others".
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〜を。。。だ inside a と言う clause
This 言う is a member of this verb group, so だ before と is optional. (This reminds me of the "optional being" in English, as in "to regard me as being a thief" vs "to regard me ...
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彼がいる場所、彼がいるその場所、彼がいる学校
They are all 内の関係.
彼がいる場所 and 彼女と初めて会ったところ are the results of filling a general word to refer to a place, respectively 場所 and ところ, into the placeholders, or gaps, in the following templates.
彼が／...
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2
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Subordinate clauses that are not for comparison - should we use が or は？
I do feel contrastive sense when は is used in those sentences. That is, with は, each sentence sounds somewhat like "On one hand, A did blah-blah, however B..." and there is a contrast ...
- 331k
2
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Is it possible to use が twice in a subordinate clause?
There might be some tendency to avoid that, but the construction is not too rare either.
小栗虫太郎『白蟻』
貴方は、私が雷が嫌いなのをご承知でいらっしゃいましょう。
海野十三『大脳手術』
それから幾日経ってか、私が気がついたときは、私は一頭のゴリラになり果てていた。
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What does のと mean in this context?
This の is short for もの (物). 木の実の干したの is the same as 木の実の干したもの, which is the same as 木の実を干したもの. This type of もの (の) is tricky to translate using English relative clauses, but this is a common use case ...
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2
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Is “まだ物が揃わず” a clause of “家がまだ物が揃わず不便ですが”?
Yes, 「まだ物が揃わず」 is a clause that adds a reason and modifies the na-adjective 不便です. Gramatically, ず is a 連体形 form of the auxiliary verb ぬ (nagation). V-ず sometimes replace V-なくて, especially in written ...
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1
vote
If a time adverb is used in an adjective clause, you have to use ていた instead of ている - does this rule apply to normal verbs?
The same rule applies and only Example 2 is possible. This article seems to be relevant as regards choosing tense in a relative clause.
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1
vote
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は in 名詞節 (content clauses)
It may be banal, but the simple answer is that there are always exceptions to rules.
The following are excerpts from
中上級を教える人のための日本語文法ハンドブック p326-
基本的な規則は、従属節（および名詞修飾節）の中では「が」を使うというものです。
It gives ...
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