こんにちは！
I can guess from context (found on side of beer can) that this says something like “drinking age is 20” but I’m struggling to parse this in a Japanese way and wanted some help.
So far I have:
(alcohol consumption) は (20 years old) に (te-form なる) (from)
Already familiar with から coming after things (何時から etc)
But questions about this phrase I have:
What role does に have here? Normally familiar with it as an indirect object marker
What meaning of なる is here? (so many definitions lol)
What role does te-form have here? My thought is either imperative or restriction but not entirely sure
Many thanks to any help :))
1 comment
Xになる is just a common “become X”
２０歳になる is “become 20y”
verbてから is a pattern meaning “since having verbed”
卒業してから医者になりました。
“since having graduated, i became a doctor”
so the original is a sentence fragment, probably part of something like
飲酒は２０歳になってから法的です
“drinking liquor after having become 20 is legal”
or
飲酒は２０歳になってからのことです
“drinking liquor is an after becoming 20 thing”