#9: 840,000 children born last year: the fewest ever

Japan’s 🍼 birth rate has been steadily declining for a while now. 📉

 こ
子ども
child

• This could also be interpreted as ‘children’. It’s hard to tell without context.
• In Japanese, most words represent both singular and plural. So, you’ve got to see the whole thing in order to know which it is.

 う
生まれた子ども
Child that was born

• Whenever you see the past tense plain/casual form of a verb in front of a noun, the verb or verb phrase modifies that noun. In other words, it’s giving more details!
• You can think of it as answering the question: what kind of child?

きょねん
去年生まれた子ども
Child born last year

• 去年 modifies the verb so it’s not followed by a particle.
• Generic times aren’t marked by particles either.

　　　　　　     はちじゅうよんまんにん
去年生まれた子どもは84万人
840,000 children were born last year

• The は particle highlights the children born last year as the topic of the sentence; they are what the rest of the sentence is about.
• Another way to think of it is “As for the children born last year, there are 840,000 of them.”
• 84万人 is in number+counter format. There are two counters: first is for 10,000 and second is for people.
• It’s uncommon to hear a number without a counter if you’re specifying a number of something.
• The verb comes from the implied copula です, which stands for ‘is/am/are’.
• We know this because です is always last in a sentence or clause.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　    すく
去年生まれた子どもは84万人　少なくなる
840,000 children were born last year: it’s become low

• なる is ‘to become.’
• When attached to an い-adjective, the last い in the adjective changes to く. This means the original adjective is 少ない => ‘few.’

去年生まれた子どもは84万人　いちばん少なくなる
840,000 children were born last year: it’s become the fewest ever

• いちばん literally means ‘number 1,’ which translates to ‘most’ or ‘est’.
• It amplifies the adjective without changing that adjective.