JSLL #40 - Yuki Onna, part 5

What will the two men do without a ferry?

Sentence 1:

二人は仕方なく河原の船頭小屋へ入り、吹雪がやむのを待つことにしました。

ふたりはしかたなくかわらのせんどうごやへはいり、ふぶきがやむのをまつことにしました。

Grammar

This sentence is once again a masu-stem clause (before the comma) and a polite past clause (after the comma). The first clause is straightforward; the second clause contains two verbs that are nominalized, one with の and the other with こと. It also ends with the polite past of する, connected to a verb with ことに. This construction (verb + ことにする) means "to decide to verb."

Vocabulary

河原 (かわら) is a new word meaning "dry riverbed" or "river beach."

船頭小屋 is a new word. We encountered the first half 船頭 (せんどう, "ferryman") earlier. The new part is 小屋 (こや, but it becomes ごや in this compound, and it means"hut"). So it means "ferryman's hut."

やむ is also a new word. It's normally not written in kana, and for good reason: there's 病む, "to fall ill" and 止む, "to stop, to cease" (an intransitive verb). We'll see that the second verb is the one used here.

Kanji

Here are our new kanji in this sentence:

Kanji	N-level	Occurs in how many common words?
河	N2	14
原	N3	54
屋	N4	42

Translation

The translation of the sentence is:

二人は仕方なく河原の船頭小屋へ入り、吹雪がやむのを待つことにしました。

The two had no choice but to enter the ferryman's hut on the dry riverbed, and decided to wait for the blizzard to stop.

Sentence 2:

船頭小屋には火もなく、畳二枚ほどの板が敷いてあっただけでした。

せんどうごやにはひもなく、たたみにまいほどのいたがしいてあっただけでした。

Grammar

The part before the comma is an adverbial phrase ending in もなく, which means "Without even..."

Vocabulary

火 (か) means "fire."

畳 (たたみ) means "tatami," the straw mats used as floor coverings in traditional Japanese rooms (which are also measured in tatami). Tatami have a size of about 90 by 180 cm (or 3 by 6 foot)

枚 (~まい) is a counter for flat objects.

ほど has multiple meanings, one of which is "about, around, approximately."

板 (いた) means "board, plank"

敷いてあった is a te+aru-form (described in the previous post) of 敷く, "to spread out"

だけ means "only"

Kanji

Most of the kanji in this sentence are pretty high-level.

Kanji	N-level	Occurs in how many common words?
火	N5	42
畳	N2	5
枚	N2	7
板	N2	17
敷	N1	14

Translation

There wasn't even a fire in the ferryman's hut, only a board that had been spread out, about two tatami in size.