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Fourth Newspaper Translation: 新しいコロナウイルス 手を洗うこととマスクが大切

Zizka

Sempai
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14 Apr 2016
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新しいコロナウイルス 手を洗うこととマスクが大切
"The new Corona virus (space) washing hands and masks are important"
 
Thanks! Trying a new approach to analysis. I'll identify part of speech and then move on to the translation:

新しいコロナウイルスせきくしゃみなどでうつります
Particles in green.
➡は:topic
➡や: non-exhaustive list
➡など:etc...
➡で: specify the context in which the action is performed

い Adjectives in blue.
Nouns in orange.
Verbs in light purple.

Novel Corona virus spreads through coughing, sneezing, etc...
 
ウイルス広がらないようするため大切なこと2つです。
In order for the virus not to spread, the next two things are important.
なーadjectives
 
Hmmm. The meaning is not very different here, but the grammar actually says,
"In order for the virus not to spread, the following two (items) are the important things."

That's essentially the same meaning here, but in other cases of ~ことは~です it might not be.
 
"In order for the virus not to spread, the following two (items) are the important things."
So you mean it's not two important things it's the next two important things which are especially important then?

つ目しっかり洗うことです
Adverbs in red-orange.
First item, wash your hands properly.
(I didn't realize could mean "item")
 
As Chrisさん points out, you seem to be getting the gist, but to nitpick further, your translation is leaving out the nuance of 広がらないようにするために. Note that にする ("to make it [something]") is a volitional action and transitive verb.

To try to capture the Japanese sentence structure without coming up with something too unnatural in English, one could say "What is important in order to make it so that the virus does not spread (i.e. "prevent the virus from spreading") are the following two things."
 
Whoops, posted at the same time, it seems.

Zizka said:
So you mean it's not two important things it's the next two important things which are especially important then?
No. There is nothing in the sentence that says that explicitly states or implies that there are more than two important things, of which the following are more important.

Zizka said:
(I didn't realize could mean "item")
It doesn't, really. It's a suffix that can be affixed to counters to make them ordinal (identifying position or sequence).

一つ one thing
一つ目 the first thing

二人 two people
二人目 the second person

3時間 three hours
3時間目 the third hour

etc.
 
I think I understood about にする but again, feel free to ask me questions if you think it can allow you to check. I also learned about now.

手首までせっけんつけて、20以上洗いましょう
Use soap and wash up to the wrist for at the very least 20 seconds.
 
I mistook 使う for 付ける➡''to put on'' possibly but there are over 14 meanings so I might be wrong.
Put on soap all the way to the wrist and wash for at least 20 seconds.
 
So you mean it's not two important things it's ..
The things which are important, which are, these two things.

It somewhat suggests these are the only two important things, but doesn't quite say it (that would be 次の二つだけ).

It's not that the difference matters here ... it's very tiny and your sentence is a reasonable natural translation, just not a perfectly literal one.

The reason I point it out is because it matters in cases like 「コーギーは犬です」.
You can equally well say "the important things are the next two" and "the next two are important things" without much change in meaning.
You cannot equally well say "Corgis are dogs" and "Dogs are corgis". (If you say "The dogs are corgis" that means something else entirely.)

I probably shouldn't have brought it up since the current article doesn't really illustrate the issue very well.
 
I mistook 使う for 付ける➡''to put on'' possibly but there are over 14 meanings so I might be wrong.
Put on soap all the way to the wrist and wash for at least 20 seconds.
Yes, "to put on" or "to apply".
Incidentally, what do you think the object of 洗う is?
 
Hmm might be a bit over my level for the moment. Maybe it's because I'm a bit tired, I've been doing a lot of studying the last few weeks. I'll get a better understanding of your explanations in the morning I think.

Was this ok?:
Put on soap all the way to the wrist and wash for at least 20 seconds.

アルコールなどで消毒すること立ちます
Disinfect your hands with alcohol and the like is also your responsibility.
Really not sure here at the end.

Incidentally, what do you think the object of 洗う is?
手首までせっけんをつけて、20秒以上洗いましょう。
Hmm... well it's not identified. There's no は or が to indicate so. I think it's implied it's where the soap has been applied which is all the way to the wrist.
 
役に立つ is an idiomatic set phrase that you should be able to find in any dictionary. It doesn't have anything to do with "responsibility".

Also note that the こと nominalizes (turns into a noun) the verb 消毒する, much in the same way we can turn "disinfect" into a noun in English by saying "disinfecting".

Zizka said:
手首までせっけんをつけて、20秒以上洗いましょう。
Hmm... well it's not identified. There's no は or が to indicate so. I think it's implied it's where the soap has been applied which is all the way to the wrist.
You're right that it's not explicitly stated, but why would you expect は or が to mark the direct object? The answer to Toritoribeさん's question is a lot more intuitive and straightforward if you think about it.
 
役に立つ ➡ Expression, ''to be useful''

Also note that the こと nominalizes (turns into a noun) the verb 消毒する, much in the same way we can turn "disinfect" into a noun in English by saying "disinfecting".
Right, the こと being paired with the verb makes it a noun, so disinfecting then.

You're right that it's not explicitly stated, but why would you expect は or が to mark the direct object?
I misread, I thought he wrote subject.

Hmm... I'd keep the same answer though:
I think it's implied it's where the soap has been applied which is all the way to the wrist.
 
Good work finding 役に立つ. I trust the sentence makes sense to you now?

Zizka said:
I misread, I thought he wrote subject.

Hmm... I'd keep the same answer though:
I think it's implied it's where the soap has been applied which is all the way to the wrist.

I mean, I guess that's one way you could possibly interpret it, but doesn't it make more intuitive sense as simply:
"Apply soap up to your wrists, and wash your hands for at least twenty seconds."

?
 
アルコールなどで手を消毒することも役に立ちます
Disinfecting hands with alcohol and the like can also be useful.
 
Zizka said:
I concur but there's no mention of hands anywhere however.

But you already understand that Japanese sentences can omit subjects/objects/etc. when they are clear from context, yes?

Could the context be any more clear that we are talking about washing hands when 手を洗うこと is literally in the headline of the article and the sentence itself talks about wrists?

(*edit because your follow-up post appeared at the same time as mine*)

And yes, your interpretation of the other sentence is correct now. Good work!
 
Last edited:
I concur but there's no mention of hands anywhere however.
1つ目は、手をしっかり洗うことです。
手首までせっけんをつけて、20秒以上洗いましょう。


As bentenmusume-san pointed out, it's very clear what they are talking about now, right? You need to interpret the meaning from the context, how the story flows, not by translating each sentence separately.
 
Could the context be any more clear that we are talking about washing hands when 手を洗うこと is literally in the headline of the article and the sentence itself talks about wrists?
Yes, it just needs getting used to frequent ellipsis.

つ目せきくしゃみ出るときマスクすることです。
Second item, when coughing or sneezing to wear a mask.
 
マスクがないときは、ティッシュや腕で口をふさぎます。
When you don't have a mask/at time when you have no mask, block your mouth with tissues or your arm.
Here there's a non-exhaustive list followed by 腕. Does this mean "Or your arm" or that among other things you can use your arm to cover your mouth?
 
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