Translation help!

Just trying to figure out how to translate two sentances and wanted some opinions!
凍てつく闇のどこで、低い声が響いた
Somewhere in the frozen darkness, a low voice rang out
アリスは両足を鎖で繋がれて蹲っている
Alice’s feet were chained, she was slumping

I have two direct questions. The first one I think is simple. After 凍てつくwhy isn’t there a の to connect? Is it because it’s a verb and then a noun?
In the second Japanese sentance the verb ‘chained’ is used in the passive form, I think? How would that be translated correctly to English?

A の after 凍てつく would make that a noun, and then you’d have another noun right after it, which wouldn’t be grammatical.

Not trying to dissuade you or anything, but is this at your reading level?

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I think so, I can understand a good 65-70%, I’m just really rusty on basic grammar, as in I can understand it, but kinda forgotten how it works

I can’t remember the exact figures, but I remember hearing that comfortable reading that still offers some opportunity to learn new words and grammar, but doesn’t overwhelm you, requires comprehension high enough that you’re only taking note of a few things to check on each page. If you’re stopping on multiple sentences in a row, or within single sentences, it might allow for more progress to find something a bit lighter.

Kanji can make this difficult with Japanese, which is also why I asked, since there are several things in the sentences you mentioned that are beyond what WK teaches even.

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Oh thank you for such a detailed reply! What I wrote as a (probably bad) translation was by myself without any other aid besides looking up the verb for ‘slump’. But I do get what you mean! I just find lighter things don’t express what I want as deeply, all about dat learning curve

This is passive form - the ‘by agent’ clause has been elided, i.e. “Alice’s feet were chained by Leebo” is passive, “Leebo chained Alice’s feet” is active.

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Well, I’m not a native speaker, so I can’t really check the English grammar, but the meaning seems correct to me.

I also really agree with your point on finding material that you find entertaining. Back when I started Japanese (10 years ago), I was told to read stuff that are appropriate for my level, but I hated it and made no real progress. (It felt boring too).

I feel the definition of “level appropriate” should be based on “are you having a good time reading this?” Based on what you said, it seems level appropriate.

Back to your original question, though, if you feel rusty in terms of grammar, it’s much more efficient to have a refresher through textbooks (or grammar dictionary) rather than through exposure. It may take a very long time for you to come across multiple examples of the grammar point you are interested in.

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Aye. Specifically, the clause is “Alice’s legs are connected by a chain” - active voice would be “A chain connects Alice’s legs”.

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Did you mean to reply to me?

I meant to quote you. Not sure I’ve quite got the hang of this forum.

So what I translated is kind of correct?

Took me a while too, no worries!

I’m trying not to be discouraging, if you can maintain motivation then keep doing it, obviously, it’s just that the content is full of N1 (or beyond) kanji and the grammar question was not at that level.

But hey, some people are super duper up on their kanji and not the other aspects of Japanese, but usually when you see those people on WK they aren’t level 1…

Oh yes! I’m very aware that the grammar question was very elementary :sweat_smile: I had a hunch but just wanted to be 100 sure. I’ve been studying for 6 years, this is the first time I’m joined

By the way, do you mind if I ask where those sentences are from?

To answer your question

In japanese you will see verb (dict form)+noun. This is called an Attributive verb and it basically uses the verb as a way to describe the noun. For instance, 歩く人 is just a walking person.

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Sure! A light novel for teenage girls

Oh wow now that I read it it doesn’t seem like it’d fit that target audience at first glance :stuck_out_tongue:

Yeah, indeed. I was actually asking for the title, since I am looking for book recommendations, but I’m not so sure anymore I want to read it.

(I only wanted to read it because the protagonist was named Alice… but that’s not even her name :upside_down_face: )

Yeah I wasn’t quite sure how to spell her name in English :persevere: