👻 Week 5 10分でよめるこわい話・10 minute Scary Stories (Absolute Beginner Book Club)

[soggyboy]

Copying the explanations from the other topic in case someone else has the same questions later.

@HopeWaterfall

子どもたちも

I’m pretty sure 子ども is not necessarily plural. In fact, the main meaning on Wanikani is child, not children. Same on Jisho, they differentiate 子ども as child/children and 子どもたち as children specifically.

のことが

I’m pretty sure this usage is the one described in this Tofugu article, to talk about someone/something as a whole entity. Relating that to the example Tofugu gives, it’s specifying that the children don’t just like Karen, they like everything about her.

にぎやかな

@CherryApple

@nospimi99

I’m guessing this is meant to be 賑やか which means bustling, crowded, lively, and the な is meant to connect it to the next kana?

It’s a na-adjective. The na is used between the adjectives and the following noun.

And for the other questions:

@nospimi99

I assume this is just 何時も which means always?

Yes, いつも means always, but you’ll usually see it written in hiragana anyways.

Passive voice

@nospimi99

I think this is 満たす in kana form? Which means to satisfy/fulfill/meet demands. But is this the passive conjugation of the verb which is then turned into the て form? So 満たす > 満たされる > 満たされて? But even if that is how we got that final result, I still don’t know what this form does to the sentence? The nuances and impact it has is lost to me.

It’s the second meaning of 満たす listed on jisho:

カレンのまわりはいつも、

Karen’s surroundings always

にぎやかなわらいごえで
With lively laughing voices

みたされていました。

Were filled

The いる here is the ている form indicating continuity.

Together:

Karen’s surroundings were always filled with the lively sounds of laughing voices.

される here indicates passive voice. We have active vs passive voice in English too, consider the difference between:

I filled Karen’s surroundings with lively voices.

Karen’s surroundings were filled with lively voices.

In the first sentence, the subject, me, was doing the filling, creating the active voice. In the second sentence, the subject is Karen, and the ‘doing’ of the filling action is done by an unseen actor, creating passive voice.

More active/passive sentences in English:

My dog bit me. (active)
I was bitten by my dog (passive)

I wrote an essay. (active)
The essay was written by me. (passive)

I washed my car. (active)
My car was washed. (passive)