おわる - Grammar Discussion

Grammar Points
#7

@jcancellier
Hey and welcome to the community forums!

It is used here as the question particle. Notice that it is followed by the の which is attached to the noun, therefore it modifies/describes/explains the noun 文章.

何になりたいかの文章を書き終わったら、絵を描いてください。
When you finish writing an essay about “what do you want to be?”, draw a picture.

You can think of the 何になりたいか as a noun phrase. That’s why it is possible to attach it to 文章 with の. As I have written, phrase connected with の “explains” the noun 文章, so I have translated it as “about”.

This is a case of a certain pattern:
Phrase + かという/かの + Noun
Phrase + という/との + Noun

Where the noun is an activity of expressing ideas or passing people information like 話 (chat/story), お知らせ (notification), 文章 and so on. The phrase is used to explain what the noun is about.

So you can rephrase かの to かという without changing the meaning:
何になりたいかという文章を書き終わったら、絵を描いてください。

I hope it helps,
Cheers!

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#8

Ah okay got it! The sentence with the literal/direct translation really helped. Thank you for the clear explanation and additional example!

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#9

何になりたいかの文章を書き終わりましたか。

Why can’t I say 書き上げました here?

#10

Hey there! We have just added a hint for 書き上げる! The general meaning of both 書き上げる and 書き終わる is basically the same, but they have a slight difference in nuance. 書き上げる has the nuance of ‘working hard/ trying to finish writing’, but 書き終わる focuses more on ‘finish writing’. I hope that answers your question!

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#11

I have a question about the intransitive nature of 終る and the use of は and を to mark the target.

Some example sentences use は:

  • この番組は見終わった。
  • 図書館から借りた本は読み終わった？

Other example sentences use を:

  • 何になりたいかの文章を書き終わりましたか。
  • 宿題を直し終わった人は教えてください。

I thought intransitive verbs don’t take objects with を, so how does that work? Is that a special case for 終る?

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#12

Not quite! It’s because the verb stem connecting to the intransitive 終わる is itself transitive.

  • 文章を書く→ 文章を書き…
  • 問題を直す → 問題を直し…

Hope this helps clear it up!

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#13

テレビを見るのはたべおわってから。

Can somebody explain the から here to me?

EDIT: Oh, I think I got it now. It’s the てから grammar point.

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#14

When should the 終おわる be past tense?
In English both of the following sentence translate to “finished” but only in the latter does 終おわる reflect that. In the former sentence it remains in the non-past tense, could someone explain when I should conjugate to the past tense?

今日きょう覚おぼえなくてはならない漢字かんじを覚おぼえ**終おわる**まで部屋へやから出でないで。

先生せんせいが説明せつめいし**終おわった**から、先生せんせいに質問しつもんをした。

#15

When the finished action is in the past :smirk:

First sentence isn’t
「…漢字を覚え終わるまで…」
"until you finish memorizing the kanji "
as in, it hasn’t happened yet, but when it does, only then can you leave the room

#2 in the past
"Because the teacher finished explaining, I asked him/her a question. "
Couldn’t ask while they were still explaining that would be rude😚 event could’ve happened 10 minutes ago or the other day either way, not future

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#16

Thank you for answer! I’m glad my question was a true question and not found in another section this time :rofl:

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#17

Hahaha :joy: all your questions are true questions just some answers are found in a different place :sparkles:

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#18

This is intensely frustrating.

Why isn’t this right?

image
image1309×364 33.1 KB

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#19

The hint of ‘emphasis on order’ is the key point here. 食べ終わってから is the answer, as てから is the grammar point used when showing that (B) only happens after (A). たら is just ‘when’ or ‘if’. Hope this helps, and that you have a great day!

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#20

「ん、で終わる言葉を使って負けた。」
This is listed as an example of 終わる being able to appear in different tenses, but how is this an example? 終わる is still in dict form, and moreover, it supposedly is a show of おわる as “is finishing”. How?

The general sentence looks more like past to me, and おわる doesn’t seem to represent “is finishing”.

#21

The sentence as a whole is in past tense, but “ん、で終わる言葉” means “a word ending in ん”, which is present continuous tense.

It’s that part of the sentence in particular that is meant to show that 終わる’s form can be changed.

Different example:
今終わる番組。The tv show that is just ending. (Present continuous ← this is the important point)
今終わる番組を半分だけ見ました。I only watched half of the tv show that is just ending. (Past tense)

(Actually, maybe it would be more natural to say 今終わってる番組. I’m not that well-versed in Japanese yet. But if that’s the case, it shows all the more that the form of 終わる can be changed. )

#22

I found this NHK article explaining that 終わる is used instead of 終える because the latter was considered difficult to pronounce when using it as an auxiliary verb (like in this grammar point), so people began saying 終わる in spoken language, making 終わる a transitive verb in addition to an intransitive.

I hope I was able to understand the article correctly. If not, please let me know so I can delete/edit this comment to avoid causing extra confusion.

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#23

Screenshot 2025-05-12 at 17.52.50
Screenshot 2025-05-12 at 17.52.501862×578 49.7 KB

Why is 走り終わる incorrect here? Is のは not meant to nominalise the verb in this case aka "what time was the finishing of the running?

#24

Hey @Kaibo !

The reason 走り終わる is incorrect here is because this sentence is talking about a past event (indicated by the でした). Due to this, using the present tense, 走り終わる, in a sentence talking about a past even will sound unnatural.

I hope this answers your question!

#25

Hello!

The sentence below is translated as “It always takes more than an hour by the time that person finishes eating breakfast.” but isn’t “up to an hour” or something along those lines the actual meaning? Nothing actually means “more than” an hour right?

あの人はいつも朝ご飯を食べおわるまでに１時間もかかる。

#26

These are later in BP lesson order, but Number/Amount + は (JLPT N4) | Bunpro / Number + も (JLPT N4) | Bunpro do mean “at least an hour”, “more or equal than an hour”. も is more emphatic.

To say “up to an hour” or “probably not more than an hour” one could use １時間ほど.

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Confusion surrounding how tenses are taught