← Japanese practiceJapanese / Guided lesson

Find the noun inside a short news-style passage

Read a small exhibition notice by separating what happened from the person, place or photograph being described. Practise clause-before-noun structure before tackling a longer newspaper article.

What you will be able to do

Bracket a verb-based noun modifier, identify its head noun and the actor where one is stated, and distinguish a heading from the main statement. Produce a short reading note without inventing missing details.

Lesson 2 of 2 in this Japanese path.

Before you start

Read hiragana and recognize が (a subject marker), を (an object marker), で (where an action happens), に (a location with ある) and の (linking nouns). The earlier permission lesson supplies useful verb practice, but does not teach this structure. Learn these forms now: 撮ります → 撮る／撮った (とる／とった, take/took a photograph); あります → ある (exist); 展示します → 展示する (てんじする, display). These are whole forms to learn, not a rule to remove ます from every verb. Words used below: 駅（えき, station）, 近く（ちかく, vicinity）, 図書館（としょかん, library）, 子どもたち（こどもたち, children）, 写真（しゃしん, photograph）, 山（やま, mountain）, 展示（てんじ, exhibition/display）.

How to use this lesson

Read the noun phrases first. Brackets below are study marks added for this lesson; ordinary Japanese does not print these brackets around every modifier.
Follow the fictional notice through the worked reading. Mark the head nouns, then the final action. Keep a separate list of information that the notice does not supply.
Answer all four tasks before opening their explanations. Keep your bracketed passage and a two-sentence English reading note; then try the same method on one short passage from a real article.

Learn the pattern

The description comes before the noun

A clause can describe a noun: [子どもたちが撮った] 写真 means photographs [that children took]. The head noun—the thing the phrase names—is 写真. Do not stop at 撮った and translate the phrase as a complete report that children took something: the following 写真 is still part of the same noun phrase. English often puts its that-clause after the noun; this Japanese pattern puts the modifier first.

Plain verb form inside, polite ending outside

In these verb-based modifiers, use a plain form before the head noun: 撮った写真, not 撮りました写真. The whole sentence can still end politely: 子どもたちが撮った写真を展示します. 撮った describes the photographs; 展示します states the main action. Learn 撮る and 撮った together here. This lesson is not a complete conjugation course, and plain form does not mean that every situation is present tense.

Ask what role the head noun plays

Compare [写真を撮った] 子ども (a child who took photographs) with [子どもが撮った] 写真 (photographs that a child took). The first names the photographer; the second names the pictures. A place can also be the head: [駅の近くにある] 図書館 is a library that is near the station. Finding the head noun is more reliable than assuming that the first person or place mentioned is the subject of the whole sentence.

A heading names a topic; the next sentence makes a statement

A written heading can end in a noun. 子どもたちが撮った写真の展示 names an exhibition of photographs taken by children; it does not itself state an opening date or an organizer. Its final head is 展示, with 写真 nested inside the description. The main sentence below ends in 展示します, so it says that photographs will be displayed. This is one reading technique for short written notices, not a claim that all Japanese newspaper headlines follow one template.

Worked examples

［駅の近くにある］図書館

a library near the station

えきのちかくにあるとしょかん。The head is 図書館. 駅の近くにある locates that library. ある is the plain form corresponding to あります in this example.

［子どもたちが撮った］写真

photographs taken by children

こどもたちがとったしゃしん。The head is 写真. 子どもたちが identifies the actors inside the modifier; 撮った is the plain past affirmative form. Japanese does not mark a singular/plural contrast on 写真 itself; photographs is chosen for this exhibition context.

［山で写真を撮った］子ども

a child who took photographs in the mountains

やまでしゃしんをとったこども。Now the head is 子ども: the phrase names the photographer, not the pictures. 山で locates the taking of photographs; it does not say where the child lives.

子どもたちが撮った写真を展示します。

Photographs taken by children will be displayed.

こどもたちがとったしゃしんをてんじします。The whole phrase 子どもたちが撮った写真 is the object marked by を. The person displaying the photographs is unstated. The English passive is a natural translation; 展示します is not a Japanese passive form.

図書館で展示する写真

photographs to be displayed at the library

としょかんでてんじするしゃしん。写真 is the head and the thing to be displayed; 図書館で gives the display location. The phrase does not identify who took the photographs. In this planned-exhibition context, 展示する is interpreted prospectively; non-past does not always mean right now.

子どもたちが撮った写真の展示

An exhibition of photographs taken by children

こどもたちがとったしゃしんのてんじ。This fictional heading ends with the noun 展示. Parse it as [[子どもたちが撮った] 写真] の展示. It names the topic without supplying every fact about an event.

Build it step by step

Read this original fictional notice. It describes no real event and is not an excerpt from a news service. Heading: 子どもたちが撮った写真の展示. Body: 駅の近くにある図書館で、子どもたちが撮った写真を展示します。山で撮った写真もあります。
Start with the body sentence’s ending, 展示します: display. Just before を, identify the object head 写真. Its modifier is 子どもたちが撮った, so the photographs were taken by children. Do not turn children into the explicitly stated organizers.
Before で, identify the location head 図書館. Its modifier 駅の近くにある tells you which library: one near the station. The full first sentence means that photographs taken by children will be displayed at a library near the station; the Japanese does not name the display organizer.
Read 山で撮った写真もあります（やまでとったしゃしんもあります）: there are also photographs taken in the mountains. も adds also; あります states their existence. The photographer of those particular pictures is not separately named in this sentence. The notice gives neither a date nor the library’s name.
Keep a reading note with two columns in your own notebook: stated facts and unanswered questions. Stated: children’s photographs, display at a library near a station, mountain photographs included. Unanswered: exact date, named venue, organizer and admission. A plausible guess is still a guess.

Try it before looking

Write or say each answer first. Open the explanation to check the pattern, then close it and try again. These are self-checks; your answers are not stored by this page.

1. In 駅の近くにある図書館, bracket the modifier and name the head noun. Is the phrase naming a station or a library?

Show answer and explanation

［駅の近くにある］図書館. The head noun is 図書館: a library.

駅 is inside the description giving the location. The noun after ある is the thing being described; it is near a station, not itself a station.

2. Repair only the verb form inside this noun phrase: 子どもたちが撮りました写真. Then explain who took what.

Show answer and explanation

子どもたちが撮った写真: photographs that children took.

Use the plain past 撮った before 写真. 子どもたちが identifies the photographers inside the modifier; 写真 names the photographs. If this phrase becomes an object, its whole group can be followed by を.

3. Match the descriptions: A 写真を撮った子ども / B 子どもが撮った写真. Which names a child, and which names photographs? Explain using the final noun.

Show answer and explanation

A names a child who took photographs. B names photographs that a child took.

A ends in 子ども, the photographer. B ends in 写真, the photographed result. Similar vocabulary does not make the two noun phrases interchangeable.

4. Using only the fictional notice, can you conclude that the exhibition opens tomorrow, admission is free, and the children organize it? Give one fact you can report and one question you must leave open.

Show answer and explanation

No. One stated fact: photographs taken by children will be displayed at a library near a station. One open question: when the exhibition opens. Admission and the organizer are also unspecified.

The heading supplies a topic and the body supplies a location/action. Neither gives those three extra details. 子どもたちが belongs inside the photograph modifier; it does not identify who performs 展示します.

Keep and use the result

Find the head noun after the modifier, check who acts inside that modifier, then return to the main sentence ending. Keep nested descriptions together. A noun-ending heading and a full statement contribute different information.

Save the bracketed notice and your stated/unknown reading note. Next, choose one short paragraph from a real Japanese article: record its URL and date, identify one verb-based noun phrase, and write a cautious paraphrase. If you cannot identify the head noun, return to the first three examples rather than guessing the event. Further work on quotation, passive forms, compressed headlines and newspaper vocabulary remains outside this unit.

Sources and scope

Grammar references checked October 31, 2026. Teaching examples and exercises are original. This is a focused learning unit, with no recorded audio or human teaching review claimed.