In sentence below can some please share why the の particle is being used
むかしむかし、冬のさなかのことでした
I think i know why for the first one but im have no idea why the second one is used
thank-you
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Ha! Your’re reading Snow White from Aozora Bunko?
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It just being used as a modifier like the first の. Literally saying “a thing/matter of the middle of winter”. It’s like when you see " むかしむかしのこと" (literally a thing of long, long ago) which is just a standard literary opening equivalent to “A long time ago” or “Once upon a time”.
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yes yes i am lol
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that is what i was thinking but not sure thanks for the response
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の just indicates that the noun that comes after it is related to the word before it. It’s mostly used to indicate possession. AのB can be translated as “A’s B”, or “the B of A”, or even “the B related to A”.
In your case, 冬のさなかのこと can be processed like “the こと of さなか of ふゆ” aka “[the thing/matter] [of the/related to] [[middle] [of] [winter]]”. You can use のこと to refer to something in a more indirect and abstract manner, for example “Aのこと” with a nuance of “the things related to A”.
As you noticed, in “冬のさなかのことでした”, the subject or topic of the sentence is not mentioned. Thing that is talked about, that would take the は particle if mentioned directly, would be “this story”. So roughly, (この話は) むかしむかし、冬のさなかのことでした, so roughly “This story is about what happened in the middle of winter a long time ago”.
At least that’s how I’m processing it.
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thank you for the time and effort you took for giving this great response .
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