Help Japanese sentence validation

[Armando]

Hi,

I'm trying to say:
"Books, the one that is reading that lady, is really impressive"

This is my approach but I'm not sure if I have mistakes:
本は、あの婦人の本を読んでいますのは、本当にすげいです。

助けてください。

 

[nice gaijin]

So, your English phrase is a little confusing, and I would recommend you not try to recreate the exact same sentence structure in Japanese. Translation is never very straightforward and direct, especially between English and Japanese.

If you're saying that the book that lady is reading is amazing, I'd probably use a clause to modify the noun "book."
あの女性が読んでいる本がすごいです。

Honestly, I would probably avoid making a statement so direct and definite as "that book is amazing," in favor of something like "I think that book is amazing, すごいと思います" or "it's a favorite of mine,気に入ったのです" or something along those lines.

If you're saying that it's impressive that she is reading that book (perhaps because it's long or complex, or like she's reading something difficult in another language), the structure would change so that instead of the book being the subject of the sentence, you'd nominalize the act of her reading that book: 彼女があの本を読んでいるのがすごいです。This does strike me as a little condescending, but I've had Japanese people tell me something along these lines when they saw me reading a novel in Japanese so I wouldn't say it necessarily carries that nuance to native speakers.

 

[Armando]

So, your English phrase is a little confusing, and I would recommend you not try to recreate the exact same sentence structure in Japanese. Translation is never very straightforward and direct, especially between English and Japanese.

If you're saying that the book that lady is reading is amazing, I'd probably use a clause to modify the noun "book."
あの女性が読んでいる本がすごいです。

Honestly, I would probably avoid making a statement so direct and definite as "that book is amazing," in favor of something like "I think that book is amazing, すごいと思います" or "it's a favorite of mine,気に入ったのです" or something along those lines.

If you're saying that it's impressive that she is reading that book (perhaps because it's long or complex, or like she's reading something difficult in another language), the structure would change so that instead of the book being the subject of the sentence, you'd nominalize the act of her reading that book: 彼女があの本を読んでいるのがすごいです。This does strike me as a little condescending, but I've had Japanese people tell me something along these lines when they saw me reading a novel in Japanese so I wouldn't say it necessarily carries that nuance to native speakers.

Thanks,

One of my goals was to sound casual as if we were talking casually about books and the listener was distracted saying something like "books, books, ah talking about books, the one book that lady is reading is impressive", "the one (book) she is reading", becomes a noun/topic, so the other goal is play on how to convert a verb sentence in a noun using のは, not sure if it works with the Progressive verb form, I know it can be done in phrases such as: 毎日勉強するのは大変です。(studying every day is hard) where studying every day becomes the topic. But, not sure if I can apply the same concept in a progressive verb such as 読んでいます, probably it should be 読んでいるのは

えと本は、本は、あの婦人の本を読んでいるのは、本当にすげいです。

changing the end for と思います is fine with me:
えと本は、本は、あの婦人の本を読んでいるのは、本当にすげいと思います。

 

[Toritoribe]

You are confusing the nominalizer の and pronoun の. あの女の人が読んでいるの can mean both "the action she is reading (the book)/reading (the book)" and "the one (book) she is reading". The former is the nominalizer, which makes a sentence into a noun clause just like the gerund "reading (the book)" or the infinitive clause "to read (the book)" in English, whereas the latter one is the pronoun which represents "book" just like "the one" in English.

What you are trying to say seems to be too advanced for your level. It's not "casual" expression but "poetic" one, which requires a deep understanding of the language. You'd better make a more common sentence first. My two cents.

 

[Armando]

You are confusing the nominalizer の and pronoun の. あの女の人が読んでいるの can mean both "the action she is reading (the book)/reading (the book)" and "the one (book) she is reading". The former is the nominalizer, which makes a sentence into a noun clause just like the gerund "reading (the book)" or the infinitive clause "to read (the book)" in English, whereas the latter one is the pronoun which represents "book" just like "the one" in English.

What you are trying to say seems to be too advanced for your level. It's not "casual" expression but "poetic" one, which requires a deep understanding of the language. You'd better make a more common sentence first. My two cents.

Hi,

Thanks for the advise, I can express the idea in a simpler way with:
あの婦人が読んでいる本がすごいと思います。
As nice gaijin recommended, but, don't you think that challenging ourselves with way more complex sentences, even, beyond our current level, may help us to progress? And yes I'm still trying to figure out the use of の to make a sentence into a noun, and you are right it's confusing to differentiate the normalizer and the pronoun, so it seems that is possible even with gerund verb conjugation [OO読んでいるの] to make an action in progress the topic of my sentences.

またありがとうございます。

 

[Mike Cash]

There's a difference between "challenging yourself with more complex sentences" and "creating gibberish because you don't have a good grasp of the basics". You're doing the latter.

 

[Toritoribe]

Hi,

Thanks for the advise, I can express the idea in a simpler way with:
あの婦人が読んでいる本がすごいと思います。
As nice gaijin recommended, but, don't you think that challenging ourselves with way more complex sentences, even, beyond our current level, may help us to progress? And yes I'm still trying to figure out the use of の to make a sentence into a noun, and you are right it's confusing to differentiate the normalizer and the pronoun, so it seems that is possible even with gerund verb conjugation [OO読んでいるの] to make an action in progress the topic of my sentences.

またありがとうございます。

Well, to polish your sentence;
婦人 is too stiff. 女の人 or 女性 is more common.
が works as the contrastive marker there, just like "the book is impressive, but the rest are not so". は is the most common just to express "the book is impressive".

Incidentally, I would say something like 本よ、本、ああ我は語らん、かの淑女の読める本の何と感銘深きことか for "books, books, ah talking about books, the one book that lady is reading is impressive".