Breakdown of tori no mure ga saezuri nagara tobimawatte iru.
がga
subject particle
のno
possessive case particle
〜ながら〜nagara
while
いるiru
to exist (animate)
Questions & Answers about tori no mure ga saezuri nagara tobimawatte iru.
What does 鳥の群れ mean literally, and what is の doing here?
鳥の群れ literally means a flock of birds.
Here, の links the two nouns:
- 鳥 = bird(s)
- 群れ = flock, herd, group, swarm
So 鳥の群れ is literally the flock of birds or a flock of birds.
This use of の is very common in Japanese for noun + noun combinations:
- 学生の本 = the student’s book / book of a student
- 日本の文化 = Japanese culture / the culture of Japan
- 鳥の群れ = a flock of birds
In English, we often translate it as of here: a flock of birds.
Why is が used after 鳥の群れ?
が marks 鳥の群れ as the grammatical subject of the sentence.
So the basic structure is:
- 鳥の群れが = a flock of birds
- さえずりながら飛び回っている = is flying around while chirping
A natural way to understand it is:
A flock of birds is flying around while chirping.
Japanese often uses が when introducing or describing what is doing the action. In this sentence, the speaker is presenting the flock of birds as the thing performing the action.
Why is it 群れが and not 鳥が?
