Please help me understand this sentence.

[wildjasmin296741]

今にちは、

I have another favor to ask.

なんと　「走る名人」は　あまりにも　足が　はやすぎて　おいかけていた どろぼうを　おいぬいて　しまったのでした。

I cannot understand this sentence. It is the last sentence in this short story. http://www.firegrubs.com/images/chokoch ... le0025.pdf

Thanks in advance,

Jasmine

[community.japanese]

Jasmin-san,
こんにちは。

Is there any specific part you don't understand?
The sentence means;
"the hashiru meijin" was too fast, and s/he ended up getting ahead of robber whom s/he was chasing.

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[wildjasmin296741]

Natsuko-san,

Thank you for coming to my rescue.

Because the sentence was so long, I simply got lost in it. Now with your translation, I start to see the different parts of the sentence. Of course, since I've just started to learn Japanese grammar, I'm not sure if my understanding is correct or not.

Would you please help me check?

(1)なんと　「走る名人」は　あまりにも　足が　はやすぎて　(2)おいかけていた (3)どろぼうを　おいぬいて　しまったのでした。

(1) = As for the Running Master, how excessively fast are his feet.
(2) = when he was chasing
(3) = he surpassed the thief.

What's the best way to translate the following words/phrases?

なんと
あまりにも

Thanks again.

[community.japanese]

Jasmine-san,
of course I'll be happy to help you

Your understanding seems to be good, but I think it's rather;
(1)なんと　「走る名人」は　あまりにも　足が　はやすぎて　(2)おいかけていた どろぼうを　(3) おいぬいて　しまったのでした。
with...
(1) = As for the Running Master, since he is excessively fast
(2) = thief whom he was chasing
(3) = he surpassed

So, this Running Mater surpassed (= 3) the thief.
Supassed "whom"? => the thief who Running Mater was chasing (= 2)
Why? => becasue the Running Master was too fast. (= 1)

なんと is the word for expressing surprise, so here, it'd be the best to translate as "surprisingly".
あまりにも could be "too ...." or "extremely".

Does this clarify at bit? Hope so!

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[wildjasmin296741]

Natsuko-san,

Wow, thank you. With this way of analyzing the sentence, the grammar about "a sentence modifying a noun is put in front of the noun" actually make sense now.

I totally missed the concept of since/why, because I didn't understand はやすぎてvery well . I only knew it had something to do with being fast. I looked it up on Google translator, it was translated as "The premature" , Denshi Jisho simple wouldn't give me an answer. Is there a better Japanese-English translator which can translate phrases and sentences better?

I know I'm reading way above my Japanese level right now, however, reading stories is way more fun than studying.

ありがとうございます

Jasmine

[ericf]

I use http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi- ... dic.cgi?9T a lot. There are also various app versions of it for iPhone & Android; 'imiwa' & 'Aedict' for instance. The browser plug-in that マイケルさん mentioned the other day is also good: rikaichan (for Firefox) or rikaikun (for Chrome).

はやすぎて is a combination of an adjective はやい meaning fast, and a verb すぎる meaning too much. Both together mean 'too fast' of course.

Actually, there are two words for はやい.
早い meaning early (compare with おはようございます)
速い meaning fast
It's the latter that's relevant for your sentence.

[community.japanese]

Jasmine-san, エリックsan,
kon'nichiwa!
Thank you for the great explanation, エリックsan!
Yes; はやい in はやすぎて can be either "fast" or "early". So, the reason Jasmine-san got the weird translation
from Google was becasue it translated as "too early (to be born)"
Well,....it's not totally wrong...

Having fun in study is always the best way! Good luck

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com