Japanese favors abstract noun phrases such as “an increase in ~” and “the importance of doing ~.” Learn the two-way technique of expanding these into English clauses and, conversely, compressing clauses into natural English noun constructions.
Basic Rules
① Japanese noun phrase → English clause:
- “an increase in ~” → “the fact that ~ has increased” or a participial construction
- “the importance of doing ~” → “it is important for A to do”
- “the fact that ~ did not do” → “the fact that A did not do” / “A's failure to do”
② English clause → compressed noun construction (natural English style):
- “Because he did not come, the meeting was delayed” → “His failure to come delayed the meeting.” (Turn the clause into a noun and make it the subject.)
- “Because she made a quick decision, the team was saved” → “Her quick decision saved the team.”
③ Common nominalization patterns:
- Verb → noun: increase→an increase in, decide→a decision, fail→a failure to
- Adjective → noun: important→the importance of, difficult→the difficulty of
Japanese: Growing concern about environmental issues brought about changes in policy.
English: Growing concern about environmental issues has led to changes in policy.
Japanese: It is important for teachers to respect students' individuality.
English: It is important for teachers to respect their students' individuality.
Japanese: The fact that he did not come caused the meeting to be delayed.
English: His failure to come delayed the meeting.
Points to Note
① Compressing a clause into a noun construction is directly connected to the technique of using an inanimate subject (Lesson 2). Memorizing forms such as “A's failure to do” and “A's decision to do” allows you to use them immediately.
② the fact that is convenient, but repeated use becomes wordy. Use it no more than once in a sentence. When possible, consider replacing it with a gerund or infinitive.
③ Highly abstract Japanese expressions such as “〜性” and “〜的な” (importance, necessity, possibility) correspond directly to importance / necessity / possibility, but the noun phrase after of must be constructed accurately. “The necessity of learning” expresses “the necessity of learning.” (learning is a gerund.)
④ Using abstract nouns as subjects too often makes the writing formal and stiff. In Japanese-to-English translation, remain faithful to the original structure while mixing in one or two noun constructions per sentence for naturalness.
- Japanese noun phrases can be expanded into the fact that / it is ~ for A to / A's -ing
- Conversely, turning a clause into a noun and making it the subject produces natural English (A's failure to do delayed...)
- Keep patterns for changing verbs into nouns and adjectives into nouns
- Avoid overusing the fact that; consider whether a gerund or infinitive can be used instead
Practice
- Translate using a noun construction: “Because she apologized immediately, the problem did not become serious” (use quick apology).
- Think of an English noun construction expressing “the difficulty of doing ~,” and translate: “Everyone experiences the difficulty of learning a new language.”
- Translate “Students' active questioning improves the quality of lessons” (use the it is ~ for A to construction).