Eragon Ch.2 pt.2

This is a continuation of my last post. We are looking at sentences from 龍騎士：飛龍聖戰(Eragon). Today we will look at the second sentence of this paragraph.

艾瑞岡跪在被踐踏過的蘆葦草上，用他那熟練的眼神掃視著。足印告訴他那群鹿半個小時前才在這草地上，牠們很快就會停下來休息。他的目標——一隻跛了左前腳的小母鹿，仍跟在鹿群中。他很驚訝她竟然走了那麼久都沒有被一隻狼或熊抓到。


第二句

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足印 → footprint
告訴他 → tell him
那群鹿 → that group of deer, 群 is the classifier for groups of animals. 鹿 means deer.
半個小時前 → a half an hour ago, 半個... means half of (whatever noun you're using). 小時 means hour. 前 come after the time you want to use when saying "... ago".
才 → just
在…上 → to be on ...
這草地 → this meadow
牠們 → they, 牠 is used for animals.
很快就會 → will soon, 很快 means very quick/soon. 就 means then. 會 expresses possibility. Don't worry too much about this construction, it's rather advanced.
停下來 → to stop, 停 means to stop. 下來 is a complement of direction, you will very often see it with this verb.
休息 → to rest

So the literal translation would be, "Footprints tell him that group of deer half an hour ago just on this meadow. They very quickly will stop to rest. In proper English this would give us...

"The footprints told him that the herd of deer had been in this meadow a half an hour ago. They would soon stop to rest."


More to come tomorrow. Once again, please leave your comments letting me know what you think.