LEARN + JAPANESE / Note 155 JLPT N4

Turning a Verb into a Noun (こと)

こと attaches after a plain-form clause and turns the whole thing into a noun, “the act of doing X,” “the fact that Y.” Once wrapped in こと, that clause can be a sentence’s subject, object, or predicate just like any ordinary noun.

In Real Life
ピアノを弾くこと packages the whole action “playing piano” into a single noun, letting it slot directly after です, exactly the way ことができる wraps a verb before できる. This is the same こと, doing the same nominalizing job in a broader range of positions.
In Real Life
Wrapping a whole fact in こと lets you attach a feeling to it directly, ことが嬉しい, “the fact that ~ made me happy,” ことに感動する, “was moved by the fact that ~,” a natural way to react to an entire situation rather than a single object.
In Real Life
Attached directly to a noun instead of a verb, XのことでYou get a slightly softer, more roundabout way of referring to a topic, 試験のことで心配, “worried, regarding the matter of the exam,” than simply 試験が心配, “worried about the exam.”

Vocabulary

JapaneseEnglish