relative clause modifying a noun

syntax

605 sentences

Japanese builds noun modification by placing a verb or full clause directly before the noun, with no relative pronoun. The verb takes its plain form, and its tense is independent of the matrix clause's tense. 知らない人 ('person [whom one] doesn't know'), 食べる時 ('the time [when one] eats'), 生きる意味 ('the meaning of living'), 食べる物 ('a thing to eat'), 行く決心 ('decision to go'). The universal pre-nominal modification pattern of Japanese — covers everything from a single bare verb to a multi-clause modifier.

605 sentences

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The happiness awaiting us there may not be the kind of happiness we hope for.

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Just take whatever you stole earlier out of your bag.

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She wasn't just humoring me. Her eyes really understood my feelings and showed sympathy.

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Uncover the mystery hidden behind the murder case.

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For example, if a teacher who's puffing away at a cigarette tells a student not to smoke, that warning would be contradictory.

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Come to think of it, I once had a tipsy old man sitting next to me on the train ask me to look at his haiku.

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The whole time, what the old man had said kept buzzing in my head, like the wing-beat of flies circling a melon.

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I don't have anything to wear when I go clothes shopping.

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It's not as if uniformed emissaries from outer space are wandering around looking for a mate, after all.

『』、。

'Nice guy' is the word girls use to describe a man who won't become a romantic prospect.

「、！？」、。

'Actually — who are you?!' Iori was interrogating that girl, ignoring me as I lay rolling on the floor.

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The next day at the newspaper office, he drew a bread roll with a dachshund inside. Not a dachshund sausage — a [real] dog, a dachshund inside.

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Around dinnertime, Reverend King was out on the balcony outside his room.

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The voices of playing children came drifting on the wind.

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The children couldn't see the daisies dancing in the moonlight.

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More people regret what they said than what they didn't.

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The clan charges wildly, like a raging sea storm.

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I feel like there's something missing from my life.

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Do you remember the day we first met?

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Her laughter was a lie to hide her sadness.

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She was at a loss for words to express her feelings.

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It looks like she's hiding something to surprise me with.

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She's beyond my reach now.

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She went into the forest to look for the missing child.

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She couldn't bring herself to pick up a heavy, demanding book.

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She's a fairy who scatters rumors wherever she goes.

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She was raised by a weak-willed mother, so she has a serious sweet tooth.

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She quickly realized he was the stranger who had appeared in her dream.

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She shed a flood of tears when her beloved dog died in an accident.

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It seems the last person I shared my thoughts with thought I was crazy.