oudanhodou no mae de tomaranai kuruma ga ite, sukosi kowakatta ndesu.

A helpful way to break it up is:

• 横断歩道の前で = at / in front of the crosswalk
• 止まらない車 = a car that does not stop / did not stop
• がいて = there was ..., and ...
• 少し怖かった = I was a little scared / it was a little scary
• んです = explanatory tone

So the sentence is built like:

[At the crosswalk] [there was a car that didn’t stop], and [I felt a little scared].

横断歩道 means crosswalk.

前 means front / before, so:

• 横断歩道の前 = the front of the crosswalk or before the crosswalk

The particle の links the two nouns, like of in English.

Then で marks the place where the action happens. Here, it marks the location connected to 止まらない:

• 横断歩道の前で止まらない = not stop in front of / before the crosswalk

So で is showing the spot where the stopping should have happened but did not.

Because 止まる and 止める are different verbs:

• 止まる = to stop, to come to a stop
• 止める = to stop something

Here, the noun being described is 車. The car is the thing that fails to come to a stop, so Japanese uses 止まる:

• 止まらない車 = a car that doesn’t stop

If you said 止めない車, it would sound more like a car that doesn’t stop something, which is not the intended meaning.

Because Japanese uses relative clauses before the noun.

So:

• 止まらない車 literally = doesn’t-stop car

In natural English, we move that information after the noun:

• a car that doesn’t stop
• in this context, more naturally: a car that didn’t stop

This is a very common Japanese pattern:

• 昨日買った本 = the book I bought yesterday
• よく話す人 = a person who talks a lot

Grammatically, 止まらない is non-past, so by itself it means doesn’t stop or won’t stop.

But in this sentence, the whole event is being told as something that happened, because the main clause is in the past:

• 少し怖かった = it was a little scary / I was a little scared

So in English, the most natural translation is:

• a car that didn’t stop

This is common in Japanese: a non-past relative clause can still be translated as past in English if the context is describing a past scene.

Because が is marking 車 as the thing that existed in the scene:

• 車がいて = there was a car, and ...

This use of が is very natural when introducing something new or pointing out what was there.

If you used は, it would sound more like you were making car the topic or contrasting it with something else. For a simple description of what happened, が is the normal choice.

That is a very good question.

In basic textbook Japanese:

• いる is for animate things, like people and animals
• ある is for inanimate things

So learners often expect 車があって.

However, in real spoken Japanese, vehicles like cars are often treated as active presences in a scene, especially when they are moving, blocking, approaching, or behaving in some noticeable way. In that kind of context, いる can sound natural.

So 車がいて here feels like:

• there was this car there
• there was a car in the scene

Also, いて is the て-form of いる, which links to the next clause:

• 車がいて、少し怖かった = There was a car there, and it was a little scary

It connects the first clause to the second clause.

So:

• 車がいて = there was a car, and ...
• 少し怖かった = it was a little scary / I was a little scared

In this sentence, the connection is not just simple and. It also implies background or cause:

• There was a car that didn’t stop, so it was a little scary

The て-form often links events in a smooth, natural way without spelling out every relationship explicitly.

怖かった is the past form of 怖い.

The speaker is talking about how they felt during that event, so the past is used:

• 怖い = scary / afraid
• 怖かった = was scary / was afraid

In English, this can be expressed in two natural ways:

• It was a little scary
• I was a little scared

Japanese often leaves the subject unstated, but here it is understood that the speaker felt scared.

んです is a conversational form of のです.

It adds an explanatory or background-giving nuance. It often sounds like the speaker is explaining the situation or giving the reason behind what they are saying.

So:

• 少し怖かった = plain statement: It was a little scary
• 少し怖かったんです = It was a little scary, you see / That’s why it was a little scary

It makes the sentence sound a bit more personal and explanatory, rather than just flatly stating a fact.

Yes. Japanese often omits subjects when they are understood from context.

Here, the person who felt scared is not stated, but it is naturally understood to be the speaker:

• 少し怖かったんです = I was a little scared

So even though 私 does not appear, the meaning is still clear. This kind of omission is extremely common in natural Japanese.