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Consider the following sentence.

> 打った人は誰ですか。

How can I translate it in English? I don't know who gets hit or who hits.

Do I need to add something like below to make it clearer?

> 私が打った人は誰ですか。Who is the person I struck?
>
> 私を打った人は誰ですか。 Who struck me?
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2015-05-30T04:01:50.660
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2015-05-30T16:59:50.677
2015-05-30T04:18:12.397
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question
grammar
How can I translate 打った人は誰ですか?
The first sentence depends on context for the exact meaning. It can be either,
since the grammatical role of the modified noun isn't explicitly given in
Japanese. This includes things normally marked with が and を (subjects and
objects), like in your example, but also to things marked with other
particles, like で or に:

> 鉛筆で書いた -> 書いた鉛筆  
>  私が店に入った -> 私が入った店

Just like in regular sentences, you can omit things from relativized clauses.
This is another reason why relative clauses can be ambiguous (but of course,
full sentences can be ambiguous for this same reason). You can often
disambiguate by adding extra information, like you did in your last two
sentences. However, don't feel like you have to make everything clear by
putting in as much information as you can. Japanese tends to omit things that
can be implied, and adding information already understood can actually be
unnatural.

Another way to disambiguate is by making the relative verb passive:

> 撃たれた人 = person who was shot

I feel like this is less common for inanimate leading nouns, though.
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2015-05-30T16:59:50.677
24655
2015-05-30T16:59:50.677
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answer