I read a sentence in Naruto that challenged some of my ideas about how Japanese works, and I'd like to try and clear this up. I can only assume that アナタがピンチの時 means "when you're in a pinch".
First of all, it looks like a relative clause modifying 時, but why isn't there a verb? Usually, when something is marked with が, that thing is the subject (or something) of a particular verb. Here, there's a verbless subject. Is the copula implied?
Secondly, could you say アナタがピンチな時 instead? How is な used in relative clauses?
Answer
The most straightforward way to analyze this is to regard の as a 連体形{れんたいけい} form of copula, which only comes after nouns (and の-adjectives).
あなたがピンチだ you're in a pinch
あなたがピンチの時 when you're in a pinch明日は雨だ tomorrow it will rain
明日が雨の場合 if it rains tomorrow
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