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In this sentence

> 僕はまったくのひとりぼっちで、まわりには誰もいない。

the adverb まったく uses の to modify ひとりぼっち (which I'm assuming is a noun in this
context. I'll come back to that.) How do you know when an adverb can be used
in this way? I've seen the same thing done with たくさん.

On a side note I'm confused about the sentence as a whole. I think ひとりぼっち
translates as loneliness or solitude and I'm assuming that the で here is the
-て form of the copula (だ). So the first half of the sentence becomes

> I am complete loneliness, and ...

which doesn't quite make sense. Thanks.
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2015-03-20T17:33:19.190
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question
grammar particles particle-の adverbs
When can an adverb use の to modify a noun
So you might be familiar with the fact that adjectives in Japanese come in a
few flavors: Na-adjectives, i-adjectives

You can now add "no-adjectives" to your list. It is not official as far as I
know, but thinking it over I think it will be easy and clear to you:

Some examples before I get to your sentence in question:

```

    "adj before noun"
    爽やかな 風 が 感じました (sawayaka + な)
    
    大きい帽子をかぶっていた (ookii + (nothing), but ends in い)
    
    たくさんの人が来ました (takusan + の)
    
```

When you want to modify a verb with "adjectives" they change in this way:

```

    "adj before verb"
    さわやかなように 触った (~なように sawatta)
    
    うまく出来た (umai -> umaku)
    
    まったくない (no special change)
    
```

So that's how you can connect adjectives/descriptive words on a basic level.
You might call them adverbs once you connect, but the word choice in English
doesn't apply 100%/ひゃくぱ.

```

    僕は
    As for boku (me), 
    まったくのひとりぼっちで、
    Completely/utterly ひとりぼっちで,
    
    まわりには誰もいない。
    In [the] surroundings, nobody [was].
    
```

You're right that ひとりぼっち means alone/solitude/loneliness. The same could have
been said by saying ひとりで but that just means "by oneself/myself" instead of
"totally alone"

So your sentence, put together, means something like

```

     I was completely alone; nobody around.
    
```

Japanese does not start with the assertion of an "I" or a "subject" that is
modified by verbs and adjectives like in English.

Often people will translate things like this by saying "Okay, there is an
Identity, and then the rest of the sentence modifies the identity"

Actually, it is quite the opposite in Japanese, we simply state the situation
as clearly as possible. Whether or not there is a subject involved is usually
irrelevant or delegated to context. So for example,

```

     僕はまったくのひとりぼっちで、まわりには誰もいない。
    
```

If we remove 僕は we have

```

    まったくのひとりぼっちで、まわりには誰もいない。
    Completely lone, surroundings containing [absolutely] no one.
    
```

When translating and interpreting, I encourage you to read every statement as
a situation, instead of as a subject verbing. You will see this sort of aspect
most readily in statements for hunger and thirst:

```

    お腹 が すいた
    Stomach が Empty/Hungry
    
    のど  が 乾いた
    throat が dried/thirsting.
    
```

If there is a relevant "part" it will be stated, but otherwise, we are simply
painting a scene with a brush that cuts through identity.

Hope that answered your question and gave you some food for thought.

Edit: "When can an adverb use の to modify a noun?" All the time provided it
has no -i or -na counterpart (which would be used instead)
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answer
Some words can be combined with の. These are called の-adjectives. Many are
adverbs that become adjectives. The most common ones that can be used with の
are たくさん、多い、and ほとんど. 多い is special. When used before the noun it changes to
多く

Example:

> １）車が **たくさん** あります。There are a lot of cars.
>
> 風で **たくさんの** 木が倒れました。Due to the wind, many trees collapsed.
>
> ２）人が **多い** です。 There are many people.
>
> **多くの** 人は親切です。Many people are kind.
>
> ３）前に勉強したことを **ほとんど** 忘れました。I forgot almost everything I studied before.
>
> **ほとんどの** りんごは赤いです。Most apples are red.

The で is the sentence does not translate into "and". It has a few uses. It can
be used to link sentences, similar to our use of a semi-colon ";". It can also
be used in situation meaning "by means of". But this is not stated when
translating the sentence.

Thus is can be "I am completely alone; no one is here." or "(By means of)
Being completely alone, no one is here.

一人で is the same. "(by means of) being one person". i.e. by myself/alone
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2015-03-21T00:28:12.097
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answer