Breakdown of kesa chiisana jishin de denchuu ga sukoshi yuremashita.
がga
subject particle
少しsukoshi
a little
地震jishin
earthquake
今朝kesa
this morning
Questions & Answers about kesa chiisana jishin de denchuu ga sukoshi yuremashita.
Why is there no particle after 今朝?
今朝 is acting as a time‐adverbial, so no particle is needed. In Japanese, many time expressions (like 今朝, 昨日, 来週) can stand alone before the verb to mean “this morning,” “yesterday,” “next week,” etc. You could add に (今朝に), but that’s less common in everyday speech.
What does the で in 小さな地震で indicate? Couldn’t it be 地震に?
Here, で marks the cause (“due to the small earthquake”).
- 地震で電柱が揺れた = The pole swayed because of the earthquake.
Using に would be incorrect for cause (に often marks time or indirect objects). If you wanted a more formal “by” or “due to,” you could say 地震によって.
Why is 小さな used instead of 小さい before 地震?
Why is 電柱 marked with が rather than を or は?
