People have told me their number one issue with Japanese is sentence structure and how to make descriptive sentences. So, we’re going to hack apart Japanese news headlines!
Hopefully this helps you! Feel free to ask about anything that’s confusing.
らっか
落下
It falls
You must be wondering where the verb is in the Japanese sentence and it’s actually 落下する. There are many nouns that become verbs when する is attached.
タクシーが落下
Taxi falls
が follows the noun to mark it as a participant of the action; something is happening to the noun.
ごかい
タクシーが5階から落下
Taxi falls from the 5th story
- 5階 is in number+counter format. This counter is for floors.
- It’s uncommon to hear a number without a counter if you’re specifying a number of something.
- から ends the phrase. English prepositions are Japanese postpositions.
タクシーがショッピングモール5階から落下
Taxi falls from a shopping mall’s 5th story
- There is an implied の, meaning ‘of’ or ‘belonging to’, between ショッピングモール and 5階.
- When there are several の in a row, some can be dropped to remove the awkward phrasing.
- の can be equivalent to ” ‘s “.
ちゅうしゃじょう
タクシーがショッピングモール5階の駐車場から落下
Taxi falls from a shopping mall’s 5th-story parking garage
の indicates the parking garage is part of the 5th floor.