Breakdown of tomodachi ga sono aikon o mite, 「kirei da ne」 to komento o shite kuremashita.
をo
direct object particle
友達tomodachi
friend
がga
subject particle
とto
quotative particle
Questions & Answers about tomodachi ga sono aikon o mite, 「kirei da ne」 to komento o shite kuremashita.
Why is が used after 友達 instead of は? Could I say 友達は here?
が marks 友達 as the grammatical subject doing the action (seeing and commenting).
In this sentence, we’re simply reporting what the friend did, so 友達が is natural.
You could say 友達はそのアイコンを見て…, but it slightly shifts the nuance:
- 友達が… = “My friend (the one who did it) saw it and commented…”
- 友達は… = “As for my friend, (he/she) saw it and commented…” – it feels a bit more like you’re contrasting your friend with someone else or introducing a topic you’ll talk more about.
In isolation, 友達が is the more neutral, straightforward choice here.
What is the role of その before アイコン? Why not just アイコン?
その means “that (one)” and usually refers to something that both speaker and listener already know or that has been mentioned before.
So そのアイコン implies “that icon (we both know which one)” – maybe a profile picture you were just talking about.
If you just said アイコン, it would be more like “an icon” or “the icon” with no explicit signal that it’s already shared knowledge.
You use その to anchor it to the shared context.
What does the て-form in 見て do here? Does it mean “and” or “after”?
