27882
If possible could someone explain this to me? I have the Genki I book that
explains it pretty well but I guess I'm still having difficulty grasping it.
I'll leave a example sentence in case my question is unclear.

Ex.

> あそこ で ほん を よんでいる がくせい は みちこさん です

I get that あそこ で ほん を よんでいる is qualifying がくせい but what is that part of the
sentence and when would I use it?

I think what may be confusing me is the different sentence structure then what
I've been use to seeing thus far in what I've studied although I know Japanese
sentence structure does tend to be a little more "loose" than English.

Apologies for the unclear question yet again. It seems I'm terrible at asking
questions
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-30T01:07:21.143
24032
2015-09-07T17:49:01.643
2015-04-30T10:12:57.207
10247
10247
question
grammar verbs adjectives nouns
Qualifying Nouns With verbs and adjectives in japanese
That's a relative clause. We have them in English, too:

> 〔あそこで ほんを よんでいる〕 **がくせい** は みちこさんです。
>
> The **student** [ _who_ is reading the book over there] is Michiko.

In Japanese, you don't have words like _who_ in relative clauses, but apart
from that, it's pretty similar. In both languages, the relative clause
corresponds to a main clause:

> **がくせい** は あそこで ほんを よんでいる。
>
> The **student** is reading the book over there.

In each case, the subject is pulled out ("relativized") and moved outside the
clause.

I wrote a longer explanation comparing relative clauses in English and
Japanese [in another
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/14541/relative-clauses-
distinguishing-whom-with-which-that/14550#14550). It's not perfect, but if
you'd like to read more, you can see what I wrote there.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-09-07T17:49:01.643
27882
2015-09-07T17:49:01.643
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
24032
answer