タグ: someone can do something

Japanese Learning (A2 S18): “Can do Something”; [Person] wa [Action Noun] ga Dekimasu./ [Person] wa [V-dic] Koto ga Dekimasu.

Today we are going to learn expressions to say someone can do something.

1. [Person] wa [Action Noun] ga Dekimasu.

This sentence seems to be a Wa-ga construction. Although I wanted to use [Subject] for the part of [Person], but in the realm of Japanese teaching, wa-ga construction is thought to be understood by the following format;

2. [Topic] wa [Subject] ga [ Predicate].

I don’t think 2 is applicable to a sentence that describes “Someone can do something”. Let me say as follows; The subject of the sentence is [Person wa], and in order to identify what the person can do, particle “ga” is used just behind the action noun.

Examples of this construction are shown below;

3. Satou-san wa Eigo ga Dekimasu. (Sato-san can speak English.)

4. Suzuki-san wa Kuruma no Unten ga Dekimasu. (Suzuki-san can drive a car.)

“Eigo” in 3 may not be an action noun, but the word “Eigo” seems to have meanings of action like speaking English and listening to it. “Unten” in 4 apparently describes the action of driving, although it is a noun.

The construction 1 to say someone can do something uses an action noun. But, when it comes to an “action”, don’t you think it is better to use a verb? Yes, a verb can be used when saying someone can do something. In order to do this, you need to pay attention that Japanese is a language for which you have to distinguish nouns or verbs strictly. Therefore, the following is WRONG:

<WRONG>  [Person] wa [Verb] ga Dekimasu.

The right expression should be as below, with a little simplification of 1;

<RIGHT> [Person] wa [Noun] ga Dekimasu.

In order to make “WRONG” “RIGHT”, you need to convert a verb to a noun. But how???

This is where the formal noun “koto” comes in. Don’t care much about the meaning of “koto”, but think “koto” is a noun that has a function to convert a verb into a kind of noun-equivalent.

[Verb in dictionary form] + koto => [Noun-Equivalent]

It looks like a math problem, but by substituting “[Noun] = [V-dic] koto ” into <RIGHT>, you will get;

5. [Person] wa [V-dic] koto ga Dekimasu.

This is the construction to say “someone can do something” using a verb.

Examples;

Satou-san wa Nihon-Ryouri o Tsukuru koto ga Dekimasu.

(Sato-san can cook Japanese Food.)

Suzuki-san wa Gitaa o Hiku koto ga Dekimasu.

(Suzuki-san  can play a guitar.)

This post was written with reference to the exercise A2 on Section 18 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”