Word
妹 は ブランコ に 乗ったあと、 砂場 で 友達 と 遊びました。imouto wa buranko ni nottaato, sunaba de tomodachi to asobimashita.
Meaning
After riding the swing, my younger sister played with her friend in the sandbox.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of imouto wa buranko ni nottaato, sunaba de tomodachi to asobimashita.
はwa
topic particle
にni
destination particle
友達tomodachi
friend
とto
companion particle
Questions & Answers about imouto wa buranko ni nottaato, sunaba de tomodachi to asobimashita.
Why is は used after 妹?
は marks 妹 as the topic of the sentence.
So 妹は means something like:
- As for my younger sister...
- My younger sister...
It does not exactly mean the same thing as an English subject marker. It tells the listener what the sentence is about. In this sentence, everything that follows describes what the younger sister did.
Why is 妹 translated as my younger sister and not just younger sister?
Japanese often leaves out words like my, your, or the when they are understood from context.
So 妹 literally just means younger sister, but in a normal sentence it often naturally refers to my younger sister unless the context says otherwise.
This is very common in Japanese:
- 母 can mean my mother
- 友達 can mean a friend or friends
- Japanese relies heavily on context instead of explicit possessives and articles
What does ブランコ mean, and why is it written in katakana?
