As the final close reading of this feature, we bring together the elements learned across four articles — wa/ga, reference terms, word order, verb conjugation — within a single continuous passage. The passage we read is the paragraph where Sensei first appears.
The passage, in full
Watashi wa sono futsuka mae ni Yuigahama made itte, suna no ue ni shagaminagara, nagai aida seiyōjin no umi e hairu yōsu o nagamete ita. … Sō iu arisama o mokugeki shita bakari no watashi no me ni wa, sarumata hitotsu de sumashite minna no mae ni tatte iru kono seiyōjin ga ika ni mo mezurashiku mieta. Kare wa yagate jibun no soba o kaerimite, soko ni kogonde iru nihonjin ni, hitokoto futakoto nanika itta. Sono nihonjin wa suna no ue ni ochita tenugui o hiroiageteiru tokoro de attaga, sore o toriageru ya ina ya, sugu atama o tsutsunde, umi no hō e arukidashita. Sono hito ga sunawachi sensei de atta. (working translation)
Two days before, I had gone all the way to Yuigahama beach, and, crouching on the sand, had been watching the Westerner go into the sea for a long while. … To my eyes, having just witnessed such a sight, this Westerner, standing before everyone in nothing but swim trunks, looked truly remarkable. He turned to look beside him after a while, and said something, a word or two, to the Japanese man crouching there. The Japanese man had just been picking up a hand towel that had fallen onto the sand, and the instant he picked it up, he wrapped it around his head and started walking toward the sea. That person was, in fact, Sensei. (working translation)
Sentence one — a long scene-setting statement, opening with “watashi wa”
Watashi wa sono futsuka mae ni Yuigahama made itte, suna no ue ni shagaminagara, nagai aida seiyōjin no umi e hairu yōsu o nagamete ita.
Watashi wa — the topic-setting wa seen in article 2. This sentence keeps “I” as its topic while piling up actions — “had gone,” “crouching” — until it finally arrives at the predicate, nagamete ita (“had been watching”). The -te in nagamete is the unchanging te-form of an ichidan verb, seen in article 5.
Sentence two — modifiers stacking up in front of the noun
Sō iu arisama o mokugeki shita bakari no watashi no me ni wa, sarumata hitotsu de sumashite minna no mae ni tatte iru kono seiyōjin ga ika ni mo mezurashiku mieta.
This sentence shows the “modifiers before the noun” principle from article 4, twice over. Sō iu arisama o mokugeki shita bakari no (“having just witnessed such a sight”) modifies watashi no me (“my eyes”), and sarumata hitotsu de sumashite minna no mae ni tatte iru kono (“standing before everyone in nothing but swim trunks”) modifies seiyōjin (“Westerner”). Both times, a long descriptive chunk is placed directly in front of the noun.
Sentence three — “kare” pointing, in a limited way, to the Westerner
Kare wa yagate jibun no soba o kaerimite, soko ni kogonde iru nihonjin ni, hitokoto futakoto nanika itta.
Kare — the limited pronoun seen in article 3, pointing to the immediate context (the Westerner). Soko ni kogonde iru nihonjin (“the Japanese man crouching there”) reconfirms “modifiers before the noun,” once again. Kogonde’s -nde is the te-form pattern of “bu/mu” verbs, seen in article 5.
Sentence four — “ga” marking the subject of a subordinate clause
Sono nihonjin wa suna no ue ni ochita tenugui o hiroiageteiru tokoro de attaga…
Sono nihonjin wa — here, picking the “Japanese man” back up from the previous sentence, the narration re-establishes him as the topic. Suna no ue ni ochita (“had fallen onto the sand”) is another instance of a modifier placed before the noun (tenugui, “hand towel”).
The final sentence — the decisive line where reference terms switch
Sono hito ga sunawachi sensei de atta.
Here, sono hito ga — a ga leading into a declarative statement, close to the embedded-clause structure seen in article 2. And this entire sentence marks the decisive moment of the reference-term switch seen in article 3. The as-yet-nameless “Japanese man” being observed switches, for the first time, right here, into “Sensei” — the term used consistently from this point on.
Worth checking as you read
First, the analysis in this article applies the rules confirmed across the previous four articles to this passage; it does not introduce any new grammatical rules.
Second, an actual piece of Japanese prose naturally contains many other grammatical elements this article has not covered (the distinct uses of particles like ni, de, to, connective expressions, and so on). This passage should not be treated as a complete showcase of “all” of Japanese grammar.
Summary
| Sentence | Grammatical elements confirmed |
|---|---|
| Watashi wa … nagamete ita | Topic-setting wa, ichidan-verb te-form |
| Sō iu arisama … mieta | Modifiers stacked before nouns (twice) |
| Kare wa yagate … itta | The limited pronoun kare, godan-verb te-form |
| Sono nihonjin wa … atta ga | Re-establishing the topic, a modifier placed before a noun |
| Sono hito ga sunawachi sensei de atta | Declarative ga, the reference-term switch |
In short — this five-sentence passage, on its own, naturally packs in every grammatical element this feature has covered: wa/ga, the placement of modifiers, the limited nature of pronouns, verb conjugation, and the switching of reference terms.