34099
> お母さんが頭を下げて試供品を受け取る **の** と、まる子がぴたりとさわぐのをやめるのは同時だった。  
>  Mother bowed, and when she took the free sample, at the same time Maruko
> suddenly stopped making a racket.

What is the purpose of the の in bold in this sentence? Is it like the の in のだ
i.e. "It was when mother took the free sample that ..."? Is the meaning
changed if I remove の?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-05-12T21:23:26.690
34097
2016-05-13T00:18:27.943
2016-05-12T22:00:45.087
7944
question
grammar particle-の cleft-sentences coordination
Verb in dictionary form followed by のと
> 「お母さんが頭を下げて試供品を受け取る + **の** + と、まる子がぴたりとさわぐのをやめる + **の** + は同時だった。」

The basic structure of that sentence is:

> 「AとBは[同時]{どうじ}だった」 = "A and B took place at the same time."

A and B, in this case, both happen to be mini-sentences, don't they?

> A: 「お[母]{かあ}さんが[頭]{あたま}を[下]{さ}げて[試供品]{しきょうひん}を[受]{う}け[取]{と}る」 = "Mother bows
> as she takes the free sample"
>
> B: 「まる[子]{こ}がぴたりとさわぐのをやめる」 = "Maruko suddenly stops making a racket"

Now, in order to say "A and B happened at the same time." rather than "A
happened at the same time B happened.", would one not feel like
_**nominalizing**_ both mini-sentenes? A Japanese-speaker would, so he would
attach his go-to nominalizer 「の」.

The sentence itself is in the past tense - 「同時 **だった** 」, but one would need
to notice that the two actions are **not** - 「受け取る」 and 「やめる」.

Grammatically speaking, 「同時だった」 at the very end is the main verb phrase of the
sentence. The far longer part that precedes is only the subject of the
sentence.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-05-13T00:18:27.943
34099
2016-05-13T00:18:27.943
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
34097
answer