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I found となる in

いまから約1世紀前となる1929年

and the English translation was "Almost a century ago in 1929," How does となる which means "become" fit in this sentence?

Makoto
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Stephenshark62
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  • I think your question has been answered here: > https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/108/what-is-the-difference-between-%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B-and-%E3%81%AB%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B – Makoto Dec 19 '20 at 13:58
  • I have read that but I still don't understand how this となる is used. Does it mean like "It became 1929 a century ago?" –  Stephenshark62 Dec 19 '20 at 14:01
  • You are on the right track, but I think you need to break it down more literally/carefully, @Stephenshark62. Which noun is being modified by となる and what is the object of となる? It might also be helpful to look beyond this clause (i.e. what follows) to understand how the 'natural'/'stylish' translation was arrived at. – henreetee Dec 19 '20 at 14:11

1 Answers1

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In general, XとなるY could be translated as “Y, which becomes X”

In other words, you could translate the sentence literally like:

The year 1929 will become/becomes (almost a century before from now)

rephrased a little more naturally:

It’s now been almost a century from the year 1929.

If we want to emphasize the year like in the original:

The year 1929, which was almost a century ago.

I think there’s a slight nuance in this usage of となるwhich I’m struggling to fit into translation but which might be phrased as “we’re getting close to one century from the year 1929” or maybe “it will soon be one century since 1929”.

Igor Skochinsky
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