Breakdown of kinou tomodati to kenkasita ato, meeru de nakanaorisimasita.
Questions & Answers about kinou tomodati to kenkasita ato, meeru de nakanaorisimasita.
In casual Japanese, time expressions like 昨日, 今日, 明日 often appear without a particle when they just indicate when something happened.
- 昨日 友達とけんかした
= (I) fought with my friend yesterday.
You could add は or に, but it slightly changes the nuance:
- 昨日は友達とけんかした。
Emphasizes “yesterday (as for yesterday), I fought with my friend.” - 昨日に友達とけんかした。
Grammatical, but sounds stiff/unnatural in everyday speech. に is rarely used with 昨日/今日/明日 in casual conversation.
So the version without a particle is the most natural for everyday speech.
Here と is the “with” particle (comitative), not “and”.
- 友達とけんかする
= to fight with a friend
Compare:
- AとB (as a list) can mean A and B:
りんごとバナナを買いました。 = I bought apples and bananas. - 人と動詞 can mean “do something with someone”:
友達と遊ぶ = play with a friend
彼と話す = talk with him
In 友達とけんかした, it means “(I) fought with my friend,” not “my friend and I both fought someone else.” Context normally makes that clear.
V-た + あと means “after doing V”.
- けんかしたあと
literally: “after (I) had a fight”
Pattern:
- 食べたあと = after (I) ate
- 勉強したあと = after (I) studied
- 仕事が終わったあと = after work ended
So the whole phrase:
- 友達とけんかしたあと、メールで仲直りしました。
= After I fought with my friend, I made up by email.
The V-た form is used because the action of けんかする is completed before the time of the main action (making up).
You can say けんかしたあとで, and it’s still natural.
- けんかしたあと、メールで仲直りしました。
- けんかしたあとで、メールで仲直りしました。
In many everyday sentences, あと and あとで are almost interchangeable. Very roughly:
- あと is a bit more neutral.
- あとで can feel a bit more like “after that / later on,” sometimes with more sense of a time gap.
In this sentence, there is no practical difference in meaning or naturalness. Both are fine.
Yes, it’s natural and common.
In Japanese, subordinate clauses (like the part before あと) do not need to match the politeness level of the main clause. The politeness is mainly controlled in the main verb at the end of the sentence.
- 友達とけんかしたあと、メールで仲直りしました。
- Subordinate clause: けんかした (plain past)
- Main clause: 仲直りしました (polite past)
You could also say:
- 友達とけんかしてから、メールで仲直りしました。 (also plain in the first verb)
- 友達とけんかしましたあとに、メールで仲直りしました。 (polite in both – grammatically OK but feels a bit stiff/odd in this position)
In real life, people almost always use plain forms inside these connecting clauses, even when the main sentence is polite.
仲直りする means “to make up / to reconcile / to restore a good relationship.”
- 仲 = relationship / relations between people
- 直り (from 直る) = to be fixed / to return to normal
→ 仲直りする = the relationship returns to good terms
Nuance:
- You had a disagreement / fight.
- Then you both calm down, talk or message, and end up on good terms again.
It doesn’t focus specifically on apologizing (that would be 謝る = “to apologize”). You can apologize as part of 仲直り, but 仲直り means the result: you’re okay with each other again.
So メールで仲直りしました = “We made up by email,” “We got back on good terms via email.”
Here で marks the means or method:
- メールで = by email / via email / using email
Particle で is often used for:
- 手段・方法 (means/method):
- バスで行く = go by bus
- 日本語で書く = write in Japanese
- 電話で話す = talk on the phone
So:
- メールで仲直りしました
= we made up by email / via email.
Using を would make メール the direct object, which doesn’t work here because you don’t “do 仲直り to the email.” You use email as the tool, so で is correct.
Yes, you can say:
- メールをして仲直りしました。
This literally means “(We) emailed (each other) and made up.”
Nuance difference:
- メールで仲直りしました。
Focus: the method of making up was email (they reconciled via email). - メールをして仲直りしました。
Focus: first sent emails, and as a result they made up.
Both are natural. メールで仲直りしました is a bit more compact and common as a set phrase style.
Yes, you can:
- 昨日は友達とけんかしたあと、メールで仲直りしました。
Adding は makes 昨日 the topic and gives it a bit of emphasis:
- Without は: simply states when it happened.
- With は: “As for yesterday, after I fought with my friend, we made up by email.”
It can sound like contrasting yesterday with other times (e.g., “Yesterday, I fought, but today we’re fine”), depending on context. In isolation, it’s just slightly more emphatic on “yesterday.”
Japanese word order is flexible as long as the verb comes at the end, but some orders feel more natural.
Most natural:
- 昨日、友達とけんかしたあと、メールで仲直りしました。
Other possible orders:
- 友達と昨日けんかしたあと、メールで仲直りしました。
Understandable, but 友達とけんかしたあと is a strong chunk, so splitting it with 昨日 feels a bit awkward. - 友達とけんかしたあと、昨日メールで仲直りしました。
Now it sounds like: “After I fought with my friend, I made up yesterday by email.”
→ this changes the meaning: the fight might have been an earlier day; only the making up was yesterday.
Original sentence implies both the fight and the making up are in the timeframe of “yesterday” (in loose everyday speech). Changing position of 昨日 can subtly change what is understood as happening “yesterday.”
Yes, you can say:
- 友達とけんかしたあと、メールで仲直りしました。
- 友達とけんかのあと、メールで仲直りしました。
Both are understandable, but there’s a nuance:
- けんかしたあと
Focuses on the action (“after [we] fought”). - けんかのあと
Uses けんか as a noun (“after the fight”). This can sound a bit more static or slightly more formal/literary, depending on context.
In everyday conversation, V-た + あと (けんかしたあと) is more common and feels more natural.