すぐそばでかすかな音がした。

immediately; at once; directly; soon; before long; shortly; easily; without difficulty; right (near); nearby; just (handy)

buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum); soba; Japanese buckwheat noodles

indicates location of action; at; in; indicates time of action; indicates means of action; cause of effect; by; and then; so; indicates continuing action; indicates certainty, emphasis, etc.

faint; dim; weak; slight; vague; indistinct; hazy; poor; wretched; meagre; meager; scanty

sound; noise; report; note; fame; Chinese-derived character reading

indicates sentence subject (occasionally object); indicates possessive (esp. in literary expressions); but; however; still; and

to do; to cause to become; to make (into); to turn (into); to serve as; to act as; to work as; to wear (clothes, a facial expression, etc.); to judge as being; to view as being; to think of as; to treat as; to use as; to decide on; to choose; to be sensed (of a smell, noise, etc.); to be (in a state, condition, etc.); to be worth; to cost; to pass (of time); to elapse; verbalizing suffix (applies to nouns noted in this dictionary with the part of speech "vs"); creates a humble verb (after a noun prefixed with "o" or "go"); to be just about to; to be just starting to; to try to; to attempt to