kongetsu no suidoudai wa omotta yori takakatta desu.

This month's water bill was higher than I expected.

Breakdown of kongetsu no suidoudai wa omotta yori takakatta desu.

• は: topic particle
• です: to be
• の: possessive case particle
• より: comparative particle

Questions & Answers about kongetsu no suidoudai wa omotta yori takakatta desu.

What does 今月の水道代 mean as one chunk?

It means this month’s water bill.

• 今月 = this month
• 水道代 = water bill / water charges
• の connects them, showing that the water bill belongs to or relates to this month

So 今月の水道代 literally means the water bill of this month.

Why is の used after 今月?

の is used to connect nouns.

Here, 今月 and 水道代 are both nouns, so の works like ’s or of in English:

• 今月の水道代 = this month’s water bill

This is one of the most common uses of の in Japanese.

Why is は used after 水道代?

は marks the topic of the sentence.

So in:

• 今月の水道代は…

the speaker is saying, as for this month’s water bill...

Everything after that gives information about that topic. In this sentence, the comment is that it was higher than expected.

Why is it 思ったより and not ?