0

In my book I have this sentence:

生徒が学校へ行こうと思って野を歩いていると、一ぴきのきつねが遠くにいるのをみた。

I understand the sentence, "The student, who is walking in the field while he wants to go to school, saw a fox far away".

But what's the purpose of "と" here?

neo2500
  • 13
  • 4
  • 1
    Are you sure your textbook says 生徒が学校へ行こうと思って野を歩いていると、一ぴきのきつねが遠くにいるのをみた, not 「生徒が学校へ行こうと思って野を歩いていると、一匹のきつねが遠くにいるのが見えた 」 or 「～～、一匹のきつねが遠くに見えた 」? – chocolate Jul 04 '17 at 22:49
  • 1
    See also: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/393/9831・https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/24463/9831・https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/17416/9831 – chocolate Jul 04 '17 at 23:03

1 Answers1

0

と in this case implies that something unexpected is following. "The student was walking in the field to go to school, when he saw a fox far away." Or we can emphasize like that to see the nuance: "Just when the student thought of going to school and was walking in the field, he saw a fox far away."

Haldea
  • 1