#15: White owl ranks first in Nagano Zoo’s animal election

🦉 are pretty cool. What do you guys think?

なる
It becomes

 ばん
1番になる
It becomes number one

The verb なる is preceded by に when it follows a noun or な-adjective.

ふくろうが1番になる
The owl becomes number one

• The が particle puts emphasis on the subject.
• It answers the question: Who became number 1?

しろ
白いふくろうが1番になる
White owl becomes number one

い-adjectives are used as-is in front of nouns.

　せんきょ
「選挙」で白いふくろうが1番になる
White owl ranks first in the “Election”

The use of で here means ‘among’ or ‘(with)in’.

　どうぶつ
「動物の選挙」で白いふくろうが1番になる
White owl ranks first in “Animal Election”

• The particle の here is used to tell us what kind of election.
• の goes between two nouns or between nouns and adjectives that are kind-of nouns.

どうぶつえん
動物園　「動物の選挙」で白いふくろうが1番になる
White owl ranks first in zoo’s “Animal Election”

The election is specific to the zoo so の in the gap here makes the most sense.

なが  の  けん
長野県の動物園　「動物の選挙」で白いふくろうが1番になる
White owl ranks first in Nagano Zoo’s “Animal Election”

• 県 means ‘prefecture.’
• Locations in Japan are often labeled with their classification. This is especially apparent when you look at the names of government organizations.