17歳まで、私の親友は靴下で作った腕人形だった。— Can you read this sentence and understand what it means?

[TofuguKanae]

17歳まで、私の親友は靴下で作った腕人形だった。— Can you read this sentence and understand what it means?

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Vocab

歳 LV.46: Years Old. 17歳 = 17 years old.

私 LV.14: I, as a first person pronoun.

親友 LV.10: Close Friend. Because close friends are 親しい(Intimate) 友(Friend), but not in a sexual way.

靴下 LV.27: Socks. 靴(shoes) + 下(below). What’s below your shoes? Your socks. Duh!

作る LV.5: To Make.

腕 LV.24: Arm.

人形 LV.7: Doll. 人(Person) + 形(Shape). 人形 isn’t necessarily person shaped, so it can be WaniKani shaped stuffed toys or puppets.

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Let’s break it down!

17歳まで、

まで is a particle meaning “until.”

So it means…“Until (I was) 17 years old.”

私の親友は

With the particle の, 私 becomes the possessive form, which is “my” in English.

So 私の親友 means…“My close friend” and this chunk is the subject of the sentence, as the particle は indicates.

____で作った

The particle で shows materials/ingredients when it’s used with the verb 作る (make).
作った is the past tense of 作る.

The ____ part is 靴下 in this sentence, so you know something was made with socks.

This chunk modifies a noun that comes after, which is 腕人形, so now we know 腕人形 was made with 靴下(socks).

腕人形だった。

Could you guess what 腕人形 is, from the combination 腕(Arm) + 人形(Doll)? — It’s a puppet!

だった is the past form of だ or です. So in this sentence, the subject 私の親友 was a puppet.

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The answer:
Reading: じゅうなな さい まで、わたし の しんゆう は くつした で つくった うでにんぎょう だった。
Meaning: Until I was 17 years old, my close friend was a puppet made with socks.

Or, a more natural (but less literal) translation could be:

“Until the age of 17, my best friend was a sock puppet.”

Has anyone made a sock puppet before? That sounds actually fun…

[seanblue]

Until age 17 my friend(s) were puppets made from socks.?

[ctmf]

Ah, so close. Reading too fast. At least I knew all the words.

“Until age 17, my close friend made sock puppets.”

[silverjbird]

I understood all the words up to the level I’m at.

[Dorotheian]

“Until I was 17, my best friend was a sock puppet.” Sock puppet put literally is “hand puppet made with socks.” I went with the plural for “friends” but given the picture, I realized that was probably supposed to be singular.

[Saruko]

Until I was 17, I was a sock puppet made by my best friend.

…not even close

[Reizo]

Until age 17 my best friend was a hand puppet made from a sock.

[Okanekure]

Yes. It means this person was a lonely, lonely child.

[saiakuma]

可愛いでしょう。
でも、ちょっと寂しいね！
私は腕人形を作ったことない、けど指人形を作りました。笑

[omukai]

I could read everything but 腕 - that’s not bad. Means there’s a lot of kanji in the future I don’t have to worry about.

[TofuguKanae]

Could be plural, but with the context of 親友 (best friend), it sounds like singular, I think!

[TofuguKanae]

@Saruko

…not even close

It is close👌
Next time, try paying closer attention to the particle “は (or が),” that might help you figure out what the subject is!

@saiakuma

けど指人形を作りました。

指人形いいね！いつかワニカニ一家の指人形を作りたいです！

[durtle]

i thought this too heheh

[saiakuma]

i read this as well

[Bog]

You made me resurrect 親友 :\

[saiakuma]

is this story about viet? he has since moved on to a more lifelike puppet friend?

[TofuguKanae]

@saiakuma

is this story about viet? he has since moved on to a more lifelike puppet friend?

Oh, actually the story behind the avatar is a bit different — it’s a wanikani baby that was orphaned by Viet as you can see him breast-feeding the baby.

Yeah, it looks kind of like a puppet though.

[aanhlle]

[腕人形]

The word bugged me a bit as I wasn’t sure about the meaning. I thought 人形 was a puppet already and couldn’t find 腕人形 in the dictionary.

[TofuguKanae]

Ohhh i was gonna reply to this and then got caught in something…sorry for the delay.

It might not be found in a dictionary, as 腕 here functions more as a substitute of 指 of 指人形.