月: 2026年5月

Japanese Learning (A4 S18): Converting a Verb to Noun Equivalent by Formal Noun “Koto”; [Noun] wa [Verb] Koto desu.

“Shumi” is activities for a person to do mainly for pleasure, usually not for earning, during leisure time. So, it’s a word like “hobby”. When you say “My hobby is what”, the Japanese sentence would be;

– Watashi no Shumi wa Supo’otsu desu. (My hobby is doing sports.)

– Watashi no Shumi wa Ryokou desu. (My hobby is traveling.)

These sentences are “Noun predicate sentences”.

1. [Subject] wa [Noun] desu.

But a hobby is an activity. When you want to tell someone what is your hobby, it would be better to say what you are doing as a hobby by using a verb.

Bad example is as below;

<WRONG> Watashi no Shumi wa Oyogimasu.

This sentence says “My hobby swims.” Does a hobby swim like a human or a fish? No, a human kind swims. What you need to do is, with some technique, to put a verb into the [Noun] part of sentence construction 1.

There are some nouns whose function is to make a verb a noun-equivalent. We have recently learned a such “Formal Noun”, which is “Koto”.

<RIGHT> Watashi no Shumi wa Oyogu Koto desu. (My hobby is swimming.)

“Oyogu” is the dictionary form of verb “Oyogimasu (swim)”. When you connecting a verb to a noun behind, you need to conjugate the verb. So far, we have learned only the following type;

[Verb in Dictionary Form] + [Noun]

Other than dictionary form, Ta-form and Nai-form* can be connected to a noun, but these things will be explained in other opportunities.

Practice and remember the following conversations;

– Type of [Noun] desu.

A : Anata no Shumi wa Nan desuka. (What is your hobby?)

B : Watashi no Shumi wa Tsuri desu. (My hobby is fishing.)

– Type of [V-dic] + Koto desu.

A : Anata no Shumi wa Nan desuka. (What is your hobby?)

B : Watashi no Shumi wa Sakana o Tsuru Koto desu. (My hobby is to fish a fish.)

* Past tense of Nai-form, V-Nakatta can also be connected to a noun.

This post was written with reference to the exercise A4 on Section 18 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”

Japanese Learning (A3 S18): You can do it because the situation allows you to do it; [Action Noun] ga Dekimasu./ [V-dic] Koto ga Dekimasu.

We have already learned the construction for “Someone can do something”. It is one of “wa-ga constructions”, but there are two types. One uses an action noun with “ga”, the other uses a verb with “koto ga”. Examples are as below;

– Satou-san wa Eigo ga dekimasu. (Sato-san can speak English.)

– Satou-san wa Eigo de Tegami o Kaku koto ga dekimasu. (Sato-san can write a letter in English.)

These sentences with “ga dekimasu” expresses that someone has his/her ability to do something. But there is another type of sentences about “can do something”. Compare the following two sentences;

1. Watashi wa 1000 me’etoru Oyogu koto ga dekimasu. (I can swim one thousand meters.)

2. Kono Pu’uru wa Yoru Juu-ji made Oyogu koto ga dekimasu. (We can swim until 10p.m. in this pool.)

Although both 1 and 2 are saying “can swim”, two sentence express different kind of “can do”. What we learn today is the type of the sentence 2, which expresses that the situation allows someone to do something.

Practice and remember the following sentences;

[Active Noun] ga dekimasu.

3. Koko de Shokuji ga dekimasu. (You can eat here.)

4. Sumaho de Kippu no Yoyaku ga dekimasu. (You can reserve tickets using your smartphone.)

[Verb in Dictionary Form]+koto ga dekimasu

5. Sumaho de Kippu o Yoyakusuru koto ga dekimasu. (You can reserve tickets using your smartphone.)

6. Toshokan de Hon o Kariru koto ga dekimasu. (You can borrow a book in the library.)

3 through 6 don’t mean that the subject has an ability to do it. The situation makes possible to do it.

This post was written with reference to the exercise A3 on Section 18 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”