Confused about ending a sentence with tokoro da

So, I have this novel I’m reading to learn, and one of the sentences is

「終電で家に向かっている所だ。」

Why is 「所だ」 at the end? The way I’m reading it, it looks like:

“I’m taking the last train home. Place.”

Don’t know. Just kinda odd.

5 comments
  1. It doesn’t mean place in this case, it means “I’m at the point” in other words, “I’m doing it now” So like if someone phoned you and you were on the train and they said “when are you coming home?” You could say the sentence in your post. “I’m on the last train heading home right now/as we speak/etc.”

  2. In the spirit of teaching you how to fish, I’ll point out that Japanese grammar is (for the most part) unbelievably easy to Google for. Just type whatever phrase you are wondering about + “grammar” or “meaning” and usually the very first result explains it (for example “ ところだ grammar”). You can even use romaji and still get good results.

  3. Here is Japanese grammar in a nutshell:

    A sentence consists of a verb (which also included so-called -i adjectives) by itself, or a noun + copula.

    Those are complete thoughts and complete sentences.

    Those verbs or nouns can be modified by stuff you put before it.

    In the case of verbs you use particles (ga, wo, wa) to attach other things to the verbs.

    You can modify any noun by putting a sentence in front of it.

    The sentence is Tokoro da.

    ANd that noun+ copula sentence is modified by a sentence put before it. (Heading Home) And that sentence is a verb, which is modified by whatever. (By last train, to home)

    Don’t make a sentence into English. Read it in Japanese. “Tokoro Da” is the sentence.

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