keisatu ha kanozyo no muzitu wo kakuninsita.

Questions & Answers about keisatu ha kanozyo no muzitu wo kakuninsita.

What are the readings of the words in this sentence?

They are:

  • 警察 → けいさつ
  • は → pronounced わ here, because it is the topic particle
  • 彼女 → かのじょ
  • の → の
  • 無実 → むじつ
  • を → pronounced お
  • 確認した → かくにんした

So the full sentence is read:

けいさつ は かのじょ の むじつ を かくにんした。

Why is は used after 警察?

は marks 警察 as the topic of the sentence.

So 警察は means something like:

  • As for the police, ...
  • The police ...

In this sentence, the police are what the sentence is mainly about, and then the sentence tells you what they did.

A learner might wonder why this is not 警察が. That is also possible in some contexts, but it changes the nuance:

  • 警察は彼女の無実を確認した。
    → talking about the police as the topic
  • 警察が彼女の無実を確認した。
    → puts more focus on the police as the ones who did it

So は is natural if you are simply stating what happened regarding the police.

Why is there a の between 彼女 and 無実?

The particle の connects nouns. Here it shows that 無実 is associated with 彼女.

So:

  • 彼女 = she / her
  • 無実 = innocence
  • 彼女の無実 = her innocence

This is similar to the English her innocence, although Japanese uses の instead of a special possessive form like her.

It does not mean she literally owns innocence like an object. It just means the innocence belongs to or applies to her.

Why is 無実 followed by を?

を marks the direct object of the verb.

The verb is 確認した = confirmed.
What was confirmed? 彼女の無実.

So:

  • 彼女の無実を確認した = confirmed her innocence

This is a very common pattern:

Here, 無実 is the thing being confirmed.

What part of speech is 無実? Is it a noun or an adjective?

無実 is primarily a noun, meaning innocence.

That is why it works naturally in:

  • 彼女の無実 = her innocence

It can also behave like a na-adjective in some contexts, for example:

  • 彼女は無実だ。 = She is innocent.

So it is useful to think of 無実 as a word that can function both as:

  • a noun: innocence
  • a na-adjectival noun: innocent

In your sentence, it is being used as a noun.

Why is the verb at the end?

Because Japanese is usually a verb-final language.

A basic Japanese sentence often puts the verb last:

  • topic / subject
  • other information
  • object
  • verb

So this sentence follows a very normal pattern:

  • 警察は = topic
  • 彼女の無実を = object
  • 確認した = verb

English usually places the verb earlier, but Japanese typically saves it for the end.

What does 確認した mean here, and why is it in the past tense?

確認した is the past form of 確認する, which means:

  • to confirm
  • to verify
  • to check and establish

The past form した shows that the action was completed:

  • 確認する = confirm / confirms / will confirm
  • 確認した = confirmed

So the sentence describes a finished action: the police confirmed her innocence.

In Japanese, the past tense often just means the event is completed. It does not always strongly emphasize past time in the same way English does.

What is the nuance of 確認した here? Is it the same as proved?

Not exactly.

確認した means confirmed or verified. It suggests that the police checked the facts and established that her innocence was true.

That is a little different from 証明した, which means proved.

Roughly:

  • 確認した = confirmed / verified
  • 証明した = proved

So 確認した sounds like the police determined or officially recognized her innocence, not necessarily that they mathematically or logically proved it in a strong formal sense.

Does 警察 mean one police officer, the police force, or the police in general?

警察 usually means the police as an institution or organization, not a single police officer.

So in this sentence, 警察 is best understood as:

  • the police
  • the police authorities

Japanese nouns usually do not explicitly show singular vs. plural the way English often does. Context tells you how to understand it.

If you wanted to refer to a police officer, you would usually say:

  • 警察官 = police officer
Why is there no word for the or her like in English?

Japanese does not have articles like a or the.

So 警察 can mean:

  • police
  • the police

depending on context.

Also, Japanese possession works differently. Instead of changing 彼女 into a special possessive form like her, Japanese simply adds の:

  • 彼女 = she / her
  • 彼女の = her

So English uses separate forms, but Japanese uses particles to show these relationships.

Could the word order be changed?

Yes, to some extent.

Because particles show each word’s role, Japanese word order is more flexible than English word order. The verb usually still stays at the end, though.

For example, this sentence could also appear as:

  • 彼女の無実を警察は確認した。

This still means basically the same thing, but it changes the emphasis slightly. Putting 彼女の無実を earlier can highlight her innocence more.

So the original order is natural, but not the only possible order.

Could this sentence be shortened or said differently?

Yes. Japanese often allows shorter versions depending on context.

For example:

  • 警察は無実を確認した。
    This could work if it is already obvious whose innocence is being discussed.

Or a different structure:

  • 警察は彼女が無実だと確認した。
    This means The police confirmed that she was innocent.

This version uses:

  • 彼女が無実だ = she is innocent
  • と = marks the quoted/content clause
  • 確認した = confirmed

Both are natural, but your original sentence is compact and very standard.

Why are there spaces between the words here? Does Japanese normally use spaces like this?

No, normal Japanese writing usually does not use spaces between words.

So the sentence would normally be written as:

警察は彼女の無実を確認した。

The spaces in your example are probably just there to help learners see the parts more clearly.

That is very common in teaching materials, but it is not standard everyday Japanese writing.

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