Structure
Verb + こと
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Standard
使用域
一般
About こと
こと (or 事 in its kanji form) is a noun that is often translated as 'thing', and in this way, literally means 'the thing that is (A)' when used for nominalization.
- 近所の迷惑になることをしてはいけない。You should not do things that will cause annoyance to your neighbors. (That which is 'causing a problem in the neighborhood')
- ファックスをすることが嫌い。I dislike things like faxing. (That which is 'faxing')
- お金を使い過ぎないことが大事です。It is important to not use too much money. (That which is 'not using too much money')
Although this lesson discusses こと pairing with the dictionary form of verbs, it can actually pair with any standard verb form. Standard form just means anything that does not finish with the polite ます.
- 1.クラスメイトをいじめないこと。1. Do not bully your classmates.
Synonyms
Examples
日本語を話すことは難しい。
Speaking Japanese is difficult.
スポーツをすることが好き。
I like playing sports.
ダンスをすることは楽しい。
Dancing is fun!
大きい声で喋らないこと。
Not talking loudly.
フォークじゃなくて、お箸を使うこと。
Not using a fork, using chopsticks.
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Online
の、こと differences and history
BriefJapanese
Verbs Treated as Nouns
Wasabi
の vs. こと
Bunpro Community [mrnoone]
Offline
Marugoto Elementary 1 (A2) Rikai
Page 32
[DBJG] A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
Page 7 & 194
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こと – Grammar Discussion
Most Recent Replies (18 in total)
Superpnut
About 1 year ago
I think this grammar point needs a bit more of an explanation. I read each forum posts and checked the links and I think it basically means to add “ing” after something?
Because I don’t even have a guess to what “Conversion of a Verb into a Noun” means, and under information all you have is "No specific context information for こと” which isn’t exactly helpful.
Most of the explanations are just stating the difference between の and こと as “nominalizers” but you guys gotta understand, I’m stupid. I don’t have a clue what a nominalizer is.So could someone tell me if I’m on track with こと being kind of like “ing” after a word? Or give please show me an english parallel so I know what I’m being shown
nekoyama
About 1 year ago
Converting a verb into a noun means taking a verb and somehow creating a noun from it by transforming it in some way. In English, there are many ways to do this, for example:
- The verb “educate” can be converted to the noun “education” by adding the nominalizing suffix “-ion”
- For the verb “sail”, we can use its gerund “sailing” as a noun, which is formed in the same way as the present participle by adding “-ing”
- For the verb “fart” we can just use the existing noun “fart” with no changes
Like you wrote, adding こと to a verb in dictionary form results in a noun with a similar meaning as the gerund in English:
- 食べる to eat → 食べること eating
- 歌う to sing → 歌うこと singing
But it’s not 100% the same as adding “-ing” because the present participle is also formed by adding “-ing” and looks identical, but does completely different things that こと can’t do.
Anyway now that we have a noun instead of a verb, we can use...
Superpnut
About 1 year ago
You a hero for this one
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