haha wa yasai o itameru mae ni koshou o iresuginaide hoshii to watashi ni itta.

topic particle

Breakdown of haha wa yasai o itameru mae ni koshou o iresuginaide hoshii to watashi ni itta.

• を: direct object particle
• に: time particle
• 母はは: mother

Questions & Answers about haha wa yasai o itameru mae ni koshou o iresuginaide hoshii to watashi ni itta.

What is the basic structure of this sentence?

A helpful way to parse it is:

母は
→ As for my mother / My mother

野菜を炒める前に
→ before frying the vegetables

こしょうを入れすぎないでほしい
→ wanted someone not to add too much pepper

と
→ marks the quoted content

私に言った
→ said to me / told me

So the overall structure is:

My mother told me, “I want you not to add too much pepper before frying the vegetables.”

A more natural English translation might be:

My mother told me not to add too much pepper before stir-frying the vegetables.

Why is は used after 母?

は marks 母 as the topic of the sentence.

So 母は means something like:

• as for my mother
• or simply my mother in natural English

It tells us that the sentence is about what the mother did. In this case, what she did was 言った (said/told).

You could compare:

• 母は言った = My mother said... / As for my mother, she said...
• 母が言った = My mother is the one who said...

Here, は is the normal, neutral choice if you are just talking about your mother and what she said.

Why is 野菜を炒める前に using 炒める instead of 炒めた?