彼が子供の時からずっと彼を知っている。

Sentence Discussions Japanese
#1
English Translation

I’ve known him ever since he was a child.

How is the subject ‘I’ in the translation? is that correct?

#2
English Translation

I’ve known him ever since he was a child.

The ‘I’ in the translation is correct.
I’m pretty sure that this sentence is one of those where you assume based on conversation that the sentence really begins with “私は…” even though the speaker doesn’t actually say “I.”

#3

@Daniel42
As @TisYanni explained, we usually drop a subject and that sounds more natural when a subject is obviously recognized by the listeners of the sentence. The subject is most likely to be “I” but also could be “he/she”, “they”, “you” or “we”.

As a native Japanese speaker, I found the original Japanese sentence still redundant because of the repetition of “彼” in the same sentence.

子供の頃から彼のことをずっと知っている。

sounds better. 子供の時から is okay but I definitely prefer 子供の頃から.

#4

Then I don’t understand what 彼が is doing in the original sentence. Isn’t that an explicit subject? how do you say it was ‘he’ and not ‘I’ who did whatever?

#5

@Daniel42

  • 彼が子供の時からずっと = Since HE was a child until now
  • 彼のことを知っている = I have known him

He is not the subject (doer) of “knowing” but the object.

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