【8】Reading Course

Teacher

Marshall

Part 3

The sentence below is what we need to learn in this lesson.

ある日ひ、羊ひつじと静しずかな森もりを見みながら座すわり、もし狼おおかみが来きたらどうしようかと考かんがえていたら、気晴きばらしによいことを思おもいつきました。

Before you learn the sentence, let us learn the vocabulary first.

Note: The blue kanji is clickable, will redirect you to the kanji page in a new tab.

Word	Meaning
ある日ひ	One day
静しずか	quiet
見みる	to watch
座すわる	to sit
もし	if
狼おおかみ	wolf
来くる	to come
考かんがえる	to think
気晴きばらしによいこと	good thing to refresh
思おもいつく	to come up with

How to read this sentence step by step?

Step 1: Find the subject/topic of this sentence by the particle は or が.

Oops！ There is no subject/topic! Yes! in Japanese, the subject/topic will be eliminated often. You can find the subject/topic by context.

In this sentence, we know the subject/topic is “Boy” although it has been eliminated.

Step 2: Find the verb of this sentence. (Usually, the verb is in the end of the sentence.)

In this sentence, the verb is 思おもいつきました.
(Meaning: to come up with)

Step 3: Find the object of this verb by particle を.

In this sentence, the object is 気晴きばらしによいこと.
(Meaning: a good thing to refresh himself)

Step 4: Combine everything we find in the steps above.

（少しょう年ねんは）気晴きばらしによいことを思おもいつきました。
（The boy） came up with a good thing to refresh himself.

Step 5: Figure out the “sub part” of this sentence.

ある日ひ、羊ひつじと静しずかな森もりを見みながら座すわり、もし狼おおかみが来きたらどうしようかと考かんがえていたら、
One day, while watching the sheep and quiet forest, as soon as the boy was sitting and thinking that what should I do if the wolves come.

Note 1: In written Japanese, we often use Polite form of verb(delete the ます in the end) to separate two sentences(For a pause), so it will be easy to read.

Note 2: どうしようか means “What should I do”. For other parts in this sentence, you can refer to the tables below.

Just in case you want to review the particles and grammar rules, below are two tables to help you.

Particle	Explanation
と	means “and”. So 羊ひつじと静しずかな森もり means “sheep and quiet forest”.
と	Quote the sentence before it. So in もし狼おおかみが来きたらどうしようかと考かんがえていたら, と quoted もし狼おおかみが来きたらどうしようか, because it’s what the boy thought.

Grammar Rule	Explanation
〜ながら	means “while…”. The usage is “Polite Form of verb(delete the ます in the end) + ながら”.
もし〜たら	means “If…”. もし狼おおかみが来きたら means “if the wolves come”.
〜たら	means “as soon as…”. So 考かんがえていたら means “as soon as he was thinking…”.

Summary:

ある日ひ、羊ひつじと静しずかな森もりを見みながら座すわり、もし狼おおかみが来きたらどうしようかと考かんがえていたら、気晴きばらしによいことを思おもいつきました。
One day, while watching the sheep and quiet forest, as soon as the boy was sitting and thinking that what should I do if the wolves come, he came up with a good thing to refresh himself.