Learn Hardcore Japanese: imouto ha kawaii uwagi to tebukuro wo katte kara, masuku no iro mo sore ni awaseta. - After my younger sister bought a cute jacket and gloves, she matched the color of her mask to them.

は marks 妹 as the topic of the sentence: “As for (my) younger sister…”. In Japanese, possession like “my/your/her” is often omitted if it’s obvious from context.

So 妹は is understood as “my younger sister” or “(the) younger sister” depending on context, even though there’s no explicit 私の (my). The listener is expected to infer whose sister it is from the situation.

How can かわいい describe both 上着 and 手袋 when it only appears once?

In Japanese, an adjective before a list joined by と can modify all the nouns in the list.

かわいい上着と手袋
→ “a cute coat and (cute) gloves”

Even though かわいい appears only before 上着, it is naturally understood to apply to both 上着 and 手袋. If you wanted to stress that only the coat is cute (and not the gloves), you’d have to reword the sentence more explicitly.

What is the role of と between 上着 and 手袋?

Here, と is the basic coordinating conjunction meaning “and”. It connects two objects that share the same verb:

かわいい上着と手袋を買って
“(she) bought a cute coat and gloves”

Both 上着 and 手袋 are direct objects of 買う (buy).

Why is を attached only to 手袋 and not to both 上着 and 手袋?

When multiple nouns are linked with と and share the same role in the sentence (here, both are direct objects), Japanese usually attaches the particle only to the last item:

上着と手袋を買った
literally “coat and gloves を bought”

The particle を applies to the entire noun phrase 上着と手袋. You don’t need (and normally wouldn’t say):

✗ 上着をと手袋を買った (sounds unnatural in this context)

What does 買ってから mean, and how does this grammar work?

買ってから comes from:

買う (to buy) → 買って (te-form)
～てから = “after doing ~ (then…)”

So 買ってから means “after buying (it/them)”.

Structure:

Verb-て + から, …
= “After doing X, (then) do Y.”

In this sentence:

上着と手袋を買ってから、マスクの色も…
→ “After buying a cute coat and some gloves, (she) also …”

Could we say 買ったあとで instead of 買ってから? What’s the difference?

You can say 買ったあとで, and it’s grammatically correct:

上着と手袋を買ったあとで、マスクの色もそれに合わせた。

Nuance:

～てから often emphasizes sequence or immediate next action: “after doing X (then immediately/as the next step) did Y”.
～たあとで is more neutral: “after X, (at some later point) Y”.

In many everyday contexts, they are interchangeable. Here, 買ってから sounds natural because matching the mask color is the next step after buying the clothes and gloves.

Why is it マスクの色 and not just マスク?

マスクの色 literally means “the color of the mask”.

The verb 合わせる here means “to match (something’s color/shape/style) to something”. In this sentence, what’s actually being matched is the color, not the physical mask itself:

She matched the color of the mask to her coat and gloves.

Saying マスクもそれに合わせた would be understood, but マスクの色 is more precise and natural when talking about matching colors.

What does the も in マスクの色も do?

も is the particle meaning “also / too / as well”.

Here, it adds the nuance that in addition to buying a cute coat and gloves, she also matched the mask color:

マスクの色もそれに合わせた。
→ “She also matched the color of the mask to them.”

It links this action to the previous one, giving a sense of “not only that, but also this”.

What does それ refer to in this sentence?

それ is a demonstrative pronoun meaning “that / it” (referring to something mentioned earlier).

Here, それ refers back to かわいい上着と手袋 taken together:

マスクの色もそれに合わせた
→ “She matched the color of the mask to them (the coat and gloves).”

Even though it’s singular in form (“that”), it can refer to the whole set of previously mentioned items.

What is the function of に after それ in それに合わせた?

The に marks the target or standard that something is being matched or adjusted to.

With the verb 合わせる (“to match / to make fit”), the pattern is:

A を B に合わせる
= “match A to B”

In this sentence:

(マスクの色) をそれに合わせた
→ “(She) matched the color of the mask to that (coat and gloves).”

The subject and を-marked object are omitted, but grammatically that’s what’s going on.

What does 合わせた mean exactly here?

合わせた is the past tense of 合わせる.

合わせる has several meanings, but in this context it means:

“to match / to coordinate / to make (something) go together with (something else)”

So マスクの色もそれに合わせた means:

“(She) also matched/coordinated the color of the mask to that (coat and gloves).”

Implied full structure:

妹はマスクの色をそれに合わせた。
“My younger sister matched the color of the mask to them.”

Who is the subject of 合わせた? Why is it not stated?

The subject is still 妹 (my younger sister).

In Japanese, once the topic/subject is clear, it is commonly dropped in later clauses to avoid repetition. The は after 妹 in the first clause sets 妹 as the ongoing topic:

妹は … 買ってから、マスクの色もそれに合わせた。

Because 妹 is already the topic, native speakers understand that she is the one who matched the mask color, even though her name is not repeated.

Why is the verb in the plain past form 合わせた and not the polite form 合わせました?

Japanese has plain and polite speech levels.

合わせた = plain past
合わせました = polite past

This sentence is in the plain style, which is used:

in written narratives (stories, novels),
in casual conversation,
in explanations to learners (often in textbooks).

If you wanted a polite style sentence, you’d change the verbs:

妹はかわいい上着と手袋を買ってから、マスクの色もそれに合わせました。