You can always link two sentences together with something like が. It’s just… two sentences with a “but” tying them together. You could put a period there instead and start a new sentence with a different grammar point if you wanted.
It’s a relative clause. サハラ砂漠にある modifies 町.
The て form is not used in writing. So yes, this is just a continuative form.
Not really in a race to post first honest! The page turns at 3pm in the UK, if I’m waiting for you all to wake up in Japan and Australia then I’m going to bed myself! Like I’ve mentioned before I’m very happy if we turn the page a couple of hours earlier so that you in Japan can start contributing in the late evening.
Awesome work today, really helpful. Thanks Leebo for answering those questions above.
I struggled with として and your translation has helped me put that sentence together. Here was the reference I found that helped:
I’m still thinking about the construction used here in …どろを かためて つくられ…
Your translation sounds right, but I’m just wondering how you got from どろを かためて つくられ(ます)to “made of hardened mud” . Maybe I’m missing something obvious but the て- form in かためて here is confusing me.
“made of hardened mud” fits with how I imagine the building to be constructed, but seems to be the opposite of how I understand the Japanese grammar here.
I’m used to seeing the て form used as a conjunction like “and then”. So taking that part of the sentence very literally, I would come up with “harden the mud, and then made”. So I was wondering if it’s using another definition for かためる. Jisho says it can also mean “to put together; to collect; to gather; to consolidate”.
かためる is a transitive verb so who or what is doing the かためる to the mud? If it’s “they” understood, then how does つくられ(ます) which is passive connect with this?
I was trying to see if there was some ~てつくる construction of some sort or another but I couldn’t find anything.
じつは - as a matter of fact
この 出っぱりは - these projections + は
たてものの - building + の (possessive particle)
内がわ から - from the inside
たくさんの lots of + の
ヤシの - palm tree + の
木を - tree/wood - I think here meaning sticks + を
外に outside + に
むかって - 向かう to face/ to go towards (in て form)
つきだした - 突き出す - to project (plain past)
もの - thing/nominalising
です - copula
As a matter of fact these projections are lots of palm sticks projecting outward from the building’s inside.
Just another note on this sentence. While it’s famous in Japanese as “The Mud Mosque”, it’s not called that in English, it’s called “The Great Mosque of Djenné.” But in Japanese it’s name does seem to be “泥のもすく”.
An example
It is interesting, cute, and big.
面白くて、可愛くて、大きいです。 Is what you learn and believe it or not, it’s rather informal.
面白く、可愛く、大きいです。 Same applies for verbs when using て to say [verb and verb]
I’ve no idea, it just seemed to fit. I never even spotted there was a problem, but I see it now. Thank you trout for pointing it out and thank you Saruko and microleaf for the great discussion (which I need to read through a few more times!). Thank you!
I understand about the connective verb form that’s being used here with つくられ, but what I don’t really understand is the same question that trout asked: