sono hutago ha kao dake de naku, koe mo yoku nite imasu.

Questions & Answers about sono hutago ha kao dake de naku, koe mo yoku nite imasu.

What does その双子 mean here? Is it that, those, or the twins?
It depends on context. その usually points to something near the listener or something already mentioned. Because Japanese nouns usually do not show singular or plural, その双子 can be understood as those twins, that pair of twins, or sometimes just the twins in natural English.
Why doesn’t 双子 have a plural ending?
Japanese normally does not mark plural the way English does. 双子 already contains the idea of a twin pair, so English needs twins, but Japanese does not need a special plural form here.
What is the role of after 双子?

marks the topic of the sentence. It sets up その双子 as what the sentence is about.

So the sentence has a structure like:

As for those twins, not only their faces, but their voices too, resemble each other closely.

How does 顔だけでなく、声も work?

This is the pattern Aだけでなく、Bも, which means not only A, but also B.

Here:

  • 顔だけでなく = not only their faces
  • 声も = their voices too / also their voices

So the sentence is contrasting two things and saying both are similar.

Why is there no particle after ?

In patterns like Nだけでなく, it is very common for the noun to come directly before だけ with no extra particle.

So 顔だけでなく is a natural way to say not only the face / not only in appearance.

If a particle were added, the nuance or phrasing would shift a little, but the version here is completely standard and natural.

Why doesn’t the sentence say their faces or their voices explicitly?

Japanese often leaves out possessives like their, his, or her when they are obvious from context.

Since その双子 is already the topic, and are naturally understood as the twins’ faces and the twins’ voices. This is especially common with body parts and personal attributes.

Does here mean the literal face, or something more like looks?

It can be understood a little more broadly than just the physical face. In this kind of sentence, often means facial appearance or how someone looks in the face.

So 顔が似ている can feel like:

  • their faces look alike
  • they look alike facially
What does よく mean here? Doesn’t it usually mean often?

Yes, よく can mean often, but here it does not.

With 似ている, よく usually means something like:

  • closely
  • very much
  • quite a lot

So よく似ています means resemble each other closely or are very similar. It is not talking about frequency.

Why is it 似ています instead of 似ます?

The usual way to say that things or people resemble each other is 似ている. This describes a current state of similarity.

So:

  • 似ている = be resembling / be similar
  • 似ています = polite form of 似ている

似ます exists, but when talking about how people look or sound alike, 似ています is much more natural.

Similar to whom? Shouldn’t there be a phrase somewhere?

Normally, yes. A full pattern is:

ABに似ている = A resembles B

But here, B is omitted because it is obvious. Since the topic is the twins, the natural meaning is that the twins resemble each other.

Japanese often leaves out information that the listener can easily infer, so there is no need to spell out each other or add another noun after in this sentence.

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How do verb conjugations work in Japanese?
Japanese verbs conjugate based on tense, politeness, and mood. For example, the polite present form adds ‑ます to the verb stem, while the past tense uses ‑ました. Unlike English, Japanese verbs don't change based on the subject — the same form works for "I", "you", and "they".

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