Here is the content of the article or you can read it here
Honestly this is a bit daunting to tackle to I first have taken the article into a google docs and colour coded words and names I don’t know as blue and red respectively and other things I don’t understand in pink.
Here is the list of words and names I don’t know or can’t read:
朝日山(あさひやま)Asahiyama
旭川市(あさひかわし)Asahikawa city
山口県(やまぐちけん)Yamaguchi prefecture
動物園(どうぶつえん)Zoo
積もる(つもる)To pile up
散歩(さんぽ)To walk/ stroll
運動(うんどう)Motion/ movement/ Exercise
増える(ふえる)To increase
振る(ふる)(No idea what this means)
撮る(とる)To take a photo
Luckily I don’t think these words are very tricky and I know most of the words used in the article but it is the grammar that I am going to get tripped up on a lot.
Here I am unsure about the use of では. I am assuming that it means ‘At Asahikawa city’s Asahiyama Zoo’ as the topic of the sentence but have so far not come across another particle combined with は. If this is the case what determines the order of the particles?
Why is が used after 雪? I thought 始める was a transitive verb and needed を.
I am also confused to what ころ means in this instance, I know ごろ means around or about which is similar to ぐらい but wasn’t sure if ころwas just another way of saying it. In the translation I put it as ‘around’
に I am assuming here refers to the time at which something is taking place.
ペンギンの散歩 I have translated as penguins walk but maybe should be translated as march instead because it is penguins? Stroll doesn’t feel right here either.
I think が after ペンギンの散歩 is used because 始まる is intransitive because something begins itself rather than someone beginning something.
This is my final attempt to understand it in English - Every year at around the time the snow begins to pile up the penguin’s walk begins at Asahikawa city’s Asahiyama Zoo.
It’s fairly common, a ton of particles can be combined with は, and they mean exactly the thing you described. Take the usual meaning of the particle, now that’s the topic of the sentence. This is oftentimes done to emphasize the usage of the particle.
The verb here is basically “積もり始める”, or “starts to pile up”. The subject of this sentence, the thing that’s starting to pile up is the snow, therefore が is used. 積もる in itself is intransitive.
Yeah, ころ is the standalone version, ごろ is the suffix version. Here “雪が積もり始める” is describing the word ころ, therefore it’s the standalone version.
Indeed
I think the correct word would be waddling (love penguins)
Waddling is certainly a correct way to describe the action of penguins walking, but I still think the focus of 散歩 is mostly on “walking for a bit of exercise, or relaxation, etc.”
Merely saying “waddling” focuses on just the manner of walking, so maybe something like “going for a waddle” covers it.
I found this sentence way harder than the first and will get a lot wrong here.
Firstly I am not sure how 間 is used here, I am assuming it either means ‘The winter period’ or ‘During the winter’
I am translating the あまり as not very much as it is followed by a verb in its negative form in 動かない.
I know 動く is to move and なる is to become but I am not sure what the two next to each other means. 動かなくなる I am thinking is to not move but then what’s the difference between that and just 動かない.
I am a bit lost of what the に particle is doing to this sentence to be honest.
I am not very familiar with the use of てもらう and will need to look this up further. But my basic understanding is that it means to get someone to do something. So maybe in this context it means to get the penguins to do exercise.
I have never seen ため used before but know it means sake or purpose so in this context I am assuming that getting the penguins to do exercise is the purpose of getting the penguins to walk.
I know I have a slight gist of this sentence but I know I am wayyyy off on this one. I currently understand it as - ‘During winter, the zoo makes the penguins who don’t move very much exercise’ I know I know this one doesn’t really match up.
I will add the grammar points てもらう、あまり、ため(に) to bunpro later for study.
動かない is “to not move”, while 動かなくなる is “to become to not move”, so it expresses a change, which the first one does not express.
The task to put this into pretty English is left as an exercise for the reader
17羽のキングペンギン honestly has lost me a little. I don’t think it means 17 king penguins that are an attribute of a feather but that is how my brain is seeing it. So for now I will ignore it and call it as 17 king penguins.
雪で I am assuming this means in the snow
Thanks to the help with the last sentence I was able to read 白くなった as to become white because at first I was a bit lost on it however I am not so sure how it fits into the sentence.
500mの道 I am saying this is just a 500m road (not sure how to read meter in nihongo tho)
On the 22nd, 17 king penguins walked in the snow on the 500m road that became white for about 30 minutes.
This obviously doesn’t sound quite right and I don’t know where I am going wrong here
Edit : I think there is something wrong with my usage of で here but not sure