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kirakira (Offline)
己所不欲勿施於人
 
Posts: 350
Join Date: Jan 2009
05-06-2009, 05:10 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by KyleGoetz View Post
RadioKid, can you explain to me what the ヶ・が in 自由が丘 is supposed to be? Just sounds like "Freedom is a hill" to me.

I used to live in Sagamihara on 緑ヶ丘 and I never understood the purpose of this, grammatically speaking. I just knew to do it.
が has an old usage which means the same as the possessive form of の.

Obviously you can't translate place names but if you HAD to, it would be closer to 自由の丘, Freedom Hill.

Some words today still use が this way like 我が家、我が国、万が一 etc.
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