Learn Hardcore Japanese: imouto ha gooru no mae de tomatte simatte, ruuru wo mou itido sensei ni kiita. - My younger sister stopped in front of the goal and asked the teacher about the rules one more time.

Word

妹いもうと　は　ゴール　の　前まえ　で　止とまって　しまって、　ルール　を　もう　一度いちど　先生せんせい　に　聞きいた。imouto wa gooru no mae de tomatte shimatte, ruuru o mou ichido sensei ni kiita.

Meaning

My younger sister stopped in front of the goal and asked the teacher about the rules one more time.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Japanese

Lesson

Lesson 53

Breakdown of imouto wa gooru no mae de tomatte shimatte, ruuru o mou ichido sensei ni kiita.

はwa

topic particle

をo

direct object particle

先せん生せいsensei

teacher

のno

possessive case particle

Questions & Answers about imouto wa gooru no mae de tomatte shimatte, ruuru o mou ichido sensei ni kiita.

Why is 妹 marked with は instead of が?

は marks 妹 as the topic of the sentence: as for my younger sister...

That means the sentence is talking about what happened to her. Using が would put more focus on 妹 as the grammatical subject in a more neutral or contrastive way.

So:

妹は = as for my younger sister...
妹が = my younger sister (is the one who)...

In this sentence, は sounds very natural because the speaker is simply telling what she did next.

What does ゴールの前で mean exactly?

ゴールの前で means in front of the goal.

Breakdown:

ゴール = goal
の = links the two nouns
前 = front / before
で = at / in / on, marking the place where an action happens

So literally, it is something like:

at the front of the goal
more naturally: in front of the goal

Why is the particle で used in ゴールの前で instead of に?