I’m working on understanding the following phrase: “「マルちゃん 兄妹(きょうだい） げんかをする」の 巻（まき)”. Which is basically the title of an episode of a children’s show.
Here’s what I think I understand so far, but I’m looking for help as I’m very much a beginner:
きょうだい is an noun that means siblings.
I believe の is a particle that is telling us more about the quarrel.
巻（まき) is a noun meaning notebook.
What I’m having trouble with is how げんかをする means quarreling. What is the infinitive of the verb here? And how is をする used to make it act more like a noun?
Hopefully this post is okay (I wasn’t sure if this was a “translation request”). Thank you very much for your input.
3 comments
兄弟げんか is one word meaning a quarrel amongst siblings
巻 is used to indicate an episode
In short, the episode where Maru-chan fights with her sibling (more specifically sister because it’s ちびまる子ちゃん)
兄妹 (きょうだい、siblings, here older brother and younger sister), 喧嘩 (けんか, quarrel/fight) make together 兄妹喧嘩/きょうだいげんか (siblings quarrel, in combination the け of けんか becomes げ, but the why isn’t super important for you now)
The を particle marks 兄妹喧嘩 as the object of following verb する(to do), so 兄妹喧嘩をする is “having a siblings quarrel”. The possessive の particle connects 巻 with the previous word group, making it something along the lines of “a book about having siblings quarrels” or “tales of fights between siblings”
I hope this helps a bit
Why do you think the verb is acting as a noun? Because の is after it? Normally you wouldn’t have の after a verb like this (when modifying a noun after の), but the title of the episode is in brackets 「These」, so the brackets and everything inside it are being treated as a noun regardless of what’s inside the brackets, meaning you can use 「」の巻 as “noun + の + noun”.
The の tells you Noun 1 is modifying Noun 2 in some way.
If you’re asking why “けんかをする” means quarreling because you saw a translation that said this title means “something something quarreling”, then the short answer is that words do not always stay the same word type when translated. Verbs can become adjectives, verbs can become nouns, things can do weird things, so don’t get too hung up on the exact types of words you see in a translation.