So the other day I attempted to read my first nhk article and break it down line by line for me to better understand the Japanese and it worked really well. I have already attempted to read my second article and again I have broken it down sentence by sentence, I know I will have gotten a lot wrong any feedback is most welcome!
17日、去年12月の中国の人口は14億1175万人だった Last year on the 17th of December China’s population was 1,411,750,000. This one was quite an easy sentence with no new vocab or grammar
14億1175万人 1,411,750,000 people
Unsure of the usage of と here but I have seen it referenced in places as a quotation so I am going to go with that for now.
発表 is apparently an announcement or statement
Last year on the 17th of December China’s population was 1,411,750,000, said an announcement.
のは not really sure about the combination of these particles?
今まで until now
1960年と1961年 1960 and 1961
だけで I litterally have no idea what this is I don’t know whether it is だけ で or だけで because I read somehwere that だけ is only and then で could mean in. But i have read somewhere that だけで has other meanings (after a while I decided on the first because it sorta makes sense after sticking with it a while).
61年ぶりです I didn’t know what ぶり meant but a dictionary tell me it means since so… Since 61 years or for 61 years.
The population decreased until now only in 1960 and 1961 it has been 61 years.
以上の人口 (not sure what 以上 means and the dictionary isn’t helping so I had to give up and use translate and apparently this is population of over, which makes sense but can someone please explain to me this word 以上.
増えていて (is this a て form paradox) increasing and
はお really have no idea what this is
年寄り elderly person
多くて子ども many and children
少ない few
社会 society
になっています is becoming
The population of 65’s and over is increasing and China is becoming a society with many elderly people and few children.
Here is my final translation of the article made a bit easier to read in english
Last year on the 17th of December China’s population was 1,411,750,000, said an announcement. That’s 850,000 less people than the previous year. The population decreased until now only in 1960 and 1961 it has been 61 years. Children born was 1,600,000 fewer than the previous year.
In China, until 7 years ago families could only have 1 child.It’s now up to 3 children but, the number of people not getting married and having children is increasing due to the costs of raising a child. The population of 65’s and over is increasing and China is becoming a society with many elderly people and few children.
China has become the 2nd largest economy in the world with an increasing population. However, from now the population decreases and economic development may not continue, an expert thinks.
Not quite. The thing that happened on the 17th (of January; the article is dated the 18th) was the publication of the statistics; the stats themselves are just about December, not specific to a day.
より marks the thing we’re comparing against; so here in “the population was 850,000 less than last year” we’re comparing this year’s figure against last year’s. I think it’s worth looking up the grammar for comparisons – it’s fairly straightforward once you’ve looked at the basic sentence patterns.
の turns the part before it into a noun, in English this would be “the decrease of the population”. は is then the topic marker as you know it.
Here it is “only” + the て-form of the copula だ。
It puts the thing before and after it in a “less than” relation. Now you need to know which side is which, and I remember this by thinking that “the part before より always loses”. In your example:
前の年 - the year before that (i.e. two years ago)
より - less than
106万人少なくなりました - shrank by 1.06 (!) million people
This is a bit nasty because it’s less than a negative thing, but it means that compared to two years before the population shrank by 1.06 million people, like you inferred correctly.
Haha @pm215 maybe we should divide the posts equally among the two of us
After a number it means “NUMBER or more”, eg ６歳以上の子供 “children aged six or above”. There’s a little set of similar words, like 以下 “X or less”, eg １６歳以下 is “16 or younger”. The translations and dictionary entries end up a bit oddly worded because these words include the given number, whereas English more naturally expresses this kind of thing with phrases like “under-16s” which does not include 16 year olds. So to convey the same information as the Japanese the phrasing can end up a little clunky.
Not sure what doesn’t match up to you? The fragments look ok and the concluding sentence as well… Care to elaborate?
Unfortunately this is まで + になりました (it has been decided)
Unfortunately this is “in order to” - this is a very annoying layering of opposite meanings
You mean this? 以上 - Jisho.org
Please please please do yourself the favor and stop using Google Translate and instead use a dictionary - it will give you so much more understanding of the words…
This is は + お年寄り (politeness prefix + elderly person)
Uuuh, not sure whether this is equivalent in English but the Japanese really says
人口が増えて the population increased
経済が世界で2番の大きな国になりました the economy became the world’s second largest country
so the て splits two complete sentences.
when - then (strict conclusion)
when the population decreases, then the economy … is what experts think.
But yes, the second と is the quotation (of the experts’ thoughts).
I don’t know whether it is だけ で or だけで because I read somehwere that だけ is only and then で could mean in. But i have read somewhere that だけで has other meanings (after a while I decided on the first because it sorta makes sense after sticking with it a while).
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