The focus of this lesson is Reviewing Modifying Clauses
彼はうちの近所に住んでいる那須実。
Kare wa uchi no kinjo ni sunde iru Nasu Minoru.
He's Minoru Nasu, and he lives near us.

In this lesson, you’ll review modifying clauses and particles that come after amounts.

Modifying Clauses

The most important thing to remember is that Japanese modifying clauses work backwards from English. First, let's take a look at a modifying clause in English:

We call the phrase "that I bought" the modifying clause; it modifies and gives us more information about the noun (in this case the bread). In English, this modifying clause always follows the noun.

Now let's look at the same phrase in Japanese:

Here are some important rules to remember for Japanese modifying clauses:

• The modifying clause comes before the noun.
• The subject in the clause has to be marked by ga or no. Wa should be reserved for marking the topic of the whole sentence.
• The phrase modifies a noun has to be informal form.

In intermediate level Japanese, it is very important to get used to hearing and using modifying clauses. This is because as your level of Japanese gets higher, the modifying clauses you come across will become longer, and you will even come across complex sentences where a modifying clause are embedded inside another modifying clause. In a long sentence, it’s important to identify where the modifying clause starts and ends to get the correct meaning.

• パン
  pan
  "bread"
• 私が買ったパン
  watashi ga katta pan
  "the bread that I bought"
• 私が買ったパンを食べたネズミ
  watashi ga katta pan o tabeta nezumi
  "the mouse that ate the bread that I bought"
• ネコは、私が買ったパンを食べたネズミをつかまえた。
  Neko wa watashi ga katta pan o tabeta nezumi o tsukamaeta.
  "The cat caught the mouse that ate the bread that I bought."

• 父が買ってくれたかばん
  Chichi ga kattekureta kaban
  "the bag my father bought for me "
• 20年前に父が買ってくれたかばん
  20-nen mae ni chichi ga katte kureta kaban
  "The bag that my father bought for me 20 years ago"
• 私は20年前に父が買ってくれたかばんをまだ使っている。
  Watashi wa 20-nen mae ni chichi ga katte kureta kaban o mada tsukatte iru.
  "I still use the bag that my father bought for me 20 years ago."

Examples From This Lesson's Dialogue

1. （私は）田畑高校に通っている高校二年生（です）。
   (Watashi wa)Tabata kōkō ni kayotteiru kōkō ni-nensei (desu).
   "I'm a second-year high school student at Tabata High School."
2. 彼はうちの近所に住んでいる那須実(です)。
   Kare wa uchi no kinjo ni sundeiru Nasu Minoru (desu).
   "He's Minoru Nasu, and he lives near us."
3. 実の弾くピアノはすごい
   Minoru no hiku piano wa sugoi.
   "Minoru is great at playing the piano."
4. 冬休みの前に出た宿題、終わった？
   Fuyu-yasumi no mae ni deta shukudai owatta?
   "Did you finish the homework we got before winter break?"
5. 本を十冊読んで、レポートを百枚書く宿題。
   Hon o jussatsu yonde, repōto o hyaku-mai kaku shukudai .
   "The homework was to read ten books and write a one-hundred page report."

[amount]＋mo

も (mo) emphasizes the amount or the extent of something. It corresponds to "as many as" or "as much as."

■  Examples

1. 日本から南アフリカまで18時間もかかります。
   Nihon kara Minami Afurika made 18-jikan mo kakarimasu.
   "It takes a good eighteen hours (as long as eighteen hours) to get to South Africa from Japan."
2. ケイトは漢字を5000個も知っている。
   Keito wa kanji o gosen-ko mo shitte iru.
   "Kate knows as many as five thousand kanji."

Please note that this [amount ]＋mo is used when the speaker thinks the amount is a lot. When the speaker thinks the amount is low, shika---nai meaning “only” is used.

1. 日本から韓国まで2時間半しかかかりません。
   Nihon kara Kankoku made ni-jikan han shika kakarimasen.
   "It takes only two hours and a half to get to South Korea from Japan."
2. ケイトは漢字を5こしか知らない。
   Keito wa kanji o go-ko shika shiranai.
   "Kate knows only five kanji."

When mo follows “nan＋counter” it means "any number of …" or "many..."

• この本は面白かったので、何回も読みました。
  Kono hon wa omoshirokatta node, nan-kai mo yomimashita.
  “Since this book is interesting, I read it many times.”
• 日本から南アフリカまで何時間もかかります。
  Nihon kara Minami Afurika made nan-jikan mo kakarimasu.
  "It takes several hours to get to South Africa from Japan."

Reference

• -te kureru → Beginner Season 5 Lesson 20
• Modifying clause→ Beginner Season 4 Lesson 49, Beginner Season 5 Lesson 4, Particle Lesson 20
• particle mo → Particle Lesson 24
• nan-do mo/nan-kai mo→ Beginner Season 5 Lesson 13

■行ってきます。[ Itte kimasu. ]
We use the phrase “ittekimasu”(literal translation “I'll go and return.”) when leaving one's home or a place that you expect to come back to later. The person who is staying says “itterasshai” as a response.

■ Various counters

台[ dai ]： Counter for machines or vehicles
枚[ mai ]： Counter for thin, flat objects
冊 [satsu ]： Counter for books
回 [ kai ]： Counter for occurrences
度 [do ]： Counter for occurrences / Counter for degrees(temperature)
年生 [ nensei ]： student in - year

若者言葉 （わかものことば）-young people’s language
In very casual conversation between young people, the "-ai" or "-oi" ending in adjectives becomes an elongated "ē" sound.

■  Example

• やばい [ yabai ] “uh-oh, no good” → やべえ [ yabē ]
• すごい [sugoi] “awesome, great” → すげえ [sugē]

Please note that this usage has an extremely casual or rough connotation and is not appropriate in formal situations.