Using こと in a sentence

Z-Dust · 15 Mar 2015

Hi everyone!

I am trying to use こと in a sentence to be able to treat a verb as a noun. Does the following example make sense?

僕は山をのぼることが好きです。
I am trying to say: I like mountain climbing/As for mountain climbing, I like it.

Thank you very much

killerinsidee · 15 Mar 2015

I think you should use の instead of こと for nominalization in that sentence.
Reason for の is that you generally use it to nominalize something that's perceptible or concrete, while こと is used for abstract or imperceptible things.

Z-Dust · 15 Mar 2015

killerinsidee said:
I think you should use の instead of こと for nominalization in that sentence.
Reason for の is that you generally use it to nominalize something that's perceptible or concrete, while こと is used for abstract or imperceptible things.

Thank you very much for your reply! I did not know this, your explanation helped clear a few things up for me.

Toritoribe · 15 Mar 2015

僕は山に登ることが好きです。 and 僕は山に登るのが好きです。 are both correct.
The main predicative determines which nominalizer, の or こと, should be used, not whether the noun clause is "perceptible or concrete" or "imperceptible or abstract".
e.g.
○彼が来週山に登ることを彼女に話した。
×彼が来週山に登るのを彼女に話した。

○彼が山に登るのを見た。
×彼が山に登ることを見た。

koto | Japan Forum

killerinsidee · 15 Mar 2015

Hmm, I always assumed that it depended on the preceding clause (I can blame DBJG for that -.-), since I specifically read that. I guess I was misunderstanding it all along, my bad.
@OP, sorry for giving you a wrong answer.

勉強になりました。

Z-Dust · 15 Mar 2015

Don't worry, it's fine. Thank you for all the responses!

Z-Dust · 16 Mar 2015

One last thing...does the following sentence make sense using no/koto?
写真をとりたいでしたが私のカメラをとるのを忘れました。
I am trying to say: I wanted to take pictures but I forgot to take my camera.

Thanks again!

killerinsidee · 16 Mar 2015

Z-Dust said:
One last thing...does the following sentence make sense using no/koto?
写真をとりたいでしたが私のカメラをとるのを忘れました。
I am trying to say: I wanted to take pictures but I forgot to take my camera.

Thanks again!

First of all, とりたいでした is wrong. It should be とりたかった. Also, カメラを持ってくる would probably work better here.
I think の would work here. Not sure about こと.
「写真を撮りたかったがカメラを持ってくるのを忘れました。」
Edit: I did some searching around and apparently こと works as well - 持ってくる「の」を忘れた。この文章の「の」は話し言葉... - Yahoo!知恵袋 I guess it would be best to take answers from that site with a grain of salt.

Wait for Toritoribeさん to confirm my answer.

Toritoribe · 16 Mar 2015

The ~tai form performs as an i-adjective, so the polite past form is 撮りたかったです. Both の and こと can be used with 忘れる. Since の sounds more colloquial than こと, as in Yahoo!知恵袋, カメラを持ってくる/いくのを忘れました sounds more natural in that sentence. I would say more simply カメラを忘れた, though.

写真を撮りたかったんですが、カメラを忘れてしまいました。

Z-Dust · 17 Mar 2015

Thank you very much; so would you say 'to take' would be redundant to use in this case?

killerinsidee · 17 Mar 2015

Z-Dust said:
Thank you very much; so would you say 'to take' would be redundant to use in this case?

It's just a different, simpler way to say it.
Compare it in English - "I forgot to bring/take my camera." vs. "I forgot my camera."

Toritoribe · 17 Mar 2015

Yeah, that's right. You can also say カメラを持っていき忘れました/持ってき忘れました for "to forget to take/bring my camera".

The explanatory ん in 撮りたかったんです and しまい(～てしまう) are the point to make the sentence sound natural, my two cents.

Using こと in a sentence

Z-Dust

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killerinsidee

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Z-Dust

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Toritoribe

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killerinsidee

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Z-Dust

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Z-Dust

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killerinsidee

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Toritoribe

松葉解禁

Z-Dust

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killerinsidee

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Toritoribe

松葉解禁

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