One person translated the 国が as “there is a country” and another translated it as “there are countries.” The following sentences made it clear that the correct was probably “there are countries” since multiple countries are mentioned, but just from that sentence, how would it be possible to tell the difference?
In English pluralization is usually clearly shown however in my limited experience, the pluralization often seems to be left ambiguous in Japanese. I did just learn a “pluralizing suffix” kanji (~達), but I’m not sure how often it’s used.
Could this have been written 国達が or 国たちが? Are there other ways to figure out pluralizations?
Or am I wrong in thinking ambiguous pluralizations could cause somewhat frequent confusion in communication?
Yes, it’s true that whether it’s plural or not is ambiguous. If you wanted to make it clear, I don’t want to say outright that you couldn’t use 国たち, but to me it sounds strange.
There’s a dedicated plural for countries, which is 国々 (くにぐに), which is like 日々 or 木々.
But generally speaking, Japanese don’t see the ambiguity as a problem. Insisting on pluralizing everything that is actually plural seems strange to them.
I read it in the context of the previous discussion of 百夜. There also exists Polar Night (in addition to the existence of Midnight Sun that we just talked about)… , with this being the main clause of the sentence.
LOL! Brilliant! I wish! (We have just had our family Christmas Day here, a couple of days early! The in-laws came over and we cooked up a chicken and all the works, and it really does feel like Christmas Day. WK and Bunpro are both on vacation mode! Happy Christmas everyone!)
Therefore, on the day of the long midnight sun, at “midnight sun festivals” people do things like enjoying music and, as a one off, letting the children stay up late.
(Caption)
ロシアで 行われる 百夜祭。 赤い ほの ふねが まつりの シンボル。
A midnight sun festival is held in Russia. A red sailed ship is the symbol of the festival.
(Side panel)
北極けんの 国を 地図 (2-3ページ) で さがしてみよう。
Let’s try and find the Arctic Circle countries on the map (pages 2-3)
In order to be become able to swim, the secret to float is, first of all body strength めいて、and be skillful in the water I’m having a lot of problems with this sentence. HELP!!
Got pretty much the same as you emucat, also struggling with the same sentence, but this is what I ended up with (noticed you also had a typo, めいて should be ぬいて) :
およげるように なるには = In order to become able to swim
まず 体の 力を ぬいて = first of all your body’s capability is drawn out (?)
うまく 水に うく ことが コツですね = skillfully floating in the water is the trick (?)
