Translating a long Japanese sentence directly into one English sentence can make the result unnatural and difficult to read. Learn how to break sentences down before translating them.
Basic Rules
① Criteria for Dividing Sentences:
- As a basic rule, construct one sentence with one subject and one main verb
- Connecting expressions such as “て,” “で,” and “し” may indicate places to divide
- When a Japanese sentence contains many commas, consider dividing it into 2–3 sentences
Example:
Japanese: “Yesterday I went to the park with my friend, played soccer, and had a great time.”
- In one sentence: “Yesterday I went to the park with my friend, played soccer, and had a great time.”
- In two sentences: “Yesterday I went to the park with my friend. We played soccer and had a great time.”
② Organizing Modifying Relationships:
- Japanese: “a high school friend whom I happened to meet at the station yesterday” ← Multiple modifiers are placed before the noun
- English: “a high school friend who I happened to meet at the station yesterday” ← Use a relative pronoun for post-nominal modification
③ Structuring Compound and Complex Sentences:
- Coordination (and/but/or): Simply place ideas side by side
- Subordination (because/although/when): Make the main-subordinate relationship clear
“Although it was raining, we went out.” / “It was raining, but we went out.”
④ Choosing the Main Clause: Make the most important part of the Japanese sentence the main clause.
- “I passed the exam and my parents were happy.”
- Main clause = “my parents were happy”: “My parents were happy because I passed the exam.”
- Main clause = “I passed the exam”: “I passed the exam, which made my parents happy.”
Japanese: He hadn't eaten anything since morning, so he was hungry and couldn't concentrate on studying.
English (1 sentence): He hadn't eaten anything since morning, so he was hungry and couldn't concentrate on studying.
English (2 sentences): He hadn't eaten anything since morning. As a result, he was too hungry to concentrate on studying.
Points to Remember
① Avoid excessive conjunctions: Translating every “and then / as a result” expression as and/then/as a result can be wordy. Often, a sentence break is enough.
② A chain of relative pronouns is difficult to read: It is recommended to divide sentences with three or more levels, such as “I have a friend who has a brother who lives in a house that ...”
③ Switching to the passive voice: Changing “He told me” to “I was told by him” in English can sometimes make the flow of the main clause smoother by using the viewpoint of the person receiving the information.
④ Sequence of tenses: If the main clause is in the past, the subordinate clause is generally also in the past. “She said that she was tired.” “× She said that she is tired.”
⑤ Revise after writing a long sentence: First translate it all at once → reread it and divide overly long sections → rewrite unnatural parts.
- Consider dividing long Japanese sentences into 2–3 sentences
- Use relative pronouns to place modifiers after nouns
- Put important information in the main clause and supplementary information in a subordinate clause
- Excessive conjunctions make writing wordy
- Divide chains of relative pronouns with three or more levels
Practice
- Divide the following long sentence into two sentences and translate it: “I woke up early, walked the dog, made breakfast, and then went to school.”
- Translate the following sentence using a relative pronoun: “He is my best friend, whom I have known since junior high.”
- Translate “Because it was raining, the game was canceled, and we played a game at home” (make the cause-and-effect relationship clear).