なぜ?どうして?Finished!

Wow, I’m learning more English than Japanese this morning! Thank you @emucat for your amazing post!

Thanks the Wikipedia! (I’ve found it under the Catalan explanation :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:)

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Page 52:

Not sure where it ends.

海の そこに きょ大な あなを 発見!

In the ocean there are gigantic holes!
or
In the ocean gigantic holes have been discovered!

I’m not sure how 発見 works as a verb here.

せかいの 海では、おどろくような 光けいが 見られる ことが あります。

In the world oceans, surprising sights can be seen sometimes! (or may be seen)?

present tense + ことが あります means that, right?

あなたは、海に そこに、とんでもなく 大きな あなが、あいている ことを 知っていますか。

Do you know that in the ocean, unthinkable big holes are opened?

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Without the する appended 発見, can we interpret this as “discovering”? This would suggest a slightly different meaning, but it does appear to be a sentence fragment, unless this is a situation where omission is allowed.

Maybe “There are many surprising spectacles to be seen (or which can be seen) in the world’s oceans”? I got the impression that structures like ことが あります emphasize existence, but this could be a Latin slant.

Does とんでもなく serve as a direct modifier of あな, in which case these “holes” are “unthinkable and large,” or is it adverbial and thus should be read as “unthinkably large”?

Otherwise looks good to me!

I thought there were two more sentences on this page, which I’ve added below:

その 名は、ブルーホール。
”It’s name is Blue Hole." <— The structure of this sentence makes me think the previous one should be rephrased in the singular: “an unthinkabl-e/-y large hole”. Also, is this an instance of permitted verb omission?

英語で「青い穴」と言う 今 です。
”In English, this means “a blue hole”. <— why is 今 being used?

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I have no idea where the page ends… so probably :stuck_out_tongue:

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Lol same, I am also an ebook plebe :slightly_smiling_face:

Also yo how do you make the words blurry in your posts so that when someone clicks on them, they appear?

Currently called? today called?

Click the “gear” button while you are writing the post and select “Blur Spoiler”

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どうもすみません、ありがとございました :blush:

@marcusp, are we up to page 51 or 52 today?


If we’re on 52, here we go (otherwise, pretend this is happening tomorrow :wink: )

Page 51
しぜん・どうぶつの ふしぎ

Mysteries of Nature and Animals


Page 52
@emucat I would translate 海のそこ as ocean floor or bottom of the ocean, not just ocean. You will learn 底(そこ) in level 17 :slight_smile:

はっけん is a する verb, so since it’s used in a title, I suppose for the sake of brevity they just left off the する. I think a natural-sounding way to translate the title in English could be:

Discovery of humongous hole (or holes) in the ocean floor!

@trischtander1, I think that とんでもなく is an adverb because it ends with く. If it were a second adjective modifying あな, I would expect it to be とんでもなくて. (But I could be wrong; there might be other ways to form a list of い-adjectives…)

The physical book page 52 ends with . . . あなが あいている ことが 知っていますか。

From Jisho, we can use the 9th definition of あく (to have a hole) for a more natural-sounding translation:

Did you know that there are unthinkably large holes in the ocean floor?


Page 53

今 looks like a typo - my copy reads “いみ”.

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  • Thanks!

  • About the titles, they are more colloquial than the rest of the text for some reason, so it makes sense.

  • And yes, とんでもなく seems to be and adverb so… surprisingly/unexpectedly big holes

Yes, make much more sense. About Do you know… and Did you know… The second sounds much better, but because the tense was not in past, it made me doubt.

Yup definitely my mistake! いみ should be 意味, which means “meaning,” and now it makes perfect sense.

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Late to the party :stuck_out_tongue: but here’s my 52 anyway

海の そこに きょ大な あなを 発見!

Colossal holes were discovered at the bottom of the ocean!

せかいの 海では、おどろくような 光けいが 見られる ことが あります。

In the world’s oceans, amazing sights can be seen.

あなたは、海の そこに、とんでもなく 大きな あなが あいている ことを 知っていますか。

Are you aware of unthinkably large holes opening at the bottom of the ocean?

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Whoops, sorry, forgot to turn the page last night before going to bed! Good job everyone else is on the ball! Thank you!

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Yes, I think it’s just the difference in how things are phrased between Japanese and English. 知っていますか uses the 〜ている form to express that you are in the state of knowing something. And I think depending on the context it could be translated in English as either “Do you know…?” or “Did you know…?” I often see “Did you know that…?” used as a way to impart a fact or bit of trivia, but “Do you know…?” sounds more like you are asking an honest question that you want to know the answer to or hear an explanation.

Ex.
Did you know that the world’s population could fit into Lake Biwa!?
Did you know that kanji were originally written on turtle shells?

Do you know how many people there are in the world?
Do you know how to write any kanji?
Do you know Koichi?

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Page 53:

I still don’t know where it ends…

その 名は、ブルーホール。

The name is Blue Hole

Why isn’t there a です at the end?

えいごで 「青い あな」 という いみです。

It means Blue Hole in English

空から 見ろと、こい 青の まん丸な 形の あなが、海に ぽっかり あいている ことが わかります。

When you see it from the sky, the hole is a deep blue perfectly circular shape but in the ocean it becomes clear it’s a gaping wide open hole The last part is an awful translation :stuck_out_tongue:

見ていると、中に すいこまれそうです。

When you see it from the middle, it looks like it sill suck you up Lose translation…

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I think it’s rather, when you look at it, it seems like it will suck you in…

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Perfectly possible!

A lot can be left out of Japanese sentences for the sake of brevity. For instance, うれしい (happy) can be a complete sentence.

No, I think your translation looks pretty good to me.

The verb すいこまれ(ます) is passive form meaning “got sucked/absorbed” or “was sucked/absorbed” so maybe it can be translated as:

When looking (at it), it seems/looks like the inside got sucked up (leaving a large gaping hole).

There’s 2 more sentences on page 53 finishing at ものなのです. Two and a half sentences on page 54 plus the picture caption.

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