What's the deal with こと ?

Hello,

The usage of こと must be one of the things that confuses me the most while learning japanese. I see it used in a lot of ways and read about it but still haven't grasped the way it should be used. Take the following sentence as an example:

"My goal is to be able to read japanese"
私の目的は日本語を読むことができることです

What's it really doing there, would the meaning be the same if I didn't use こと?

What are the rules for using こと and what's its purpose?

Thanks

To put it simple, in the case you described above, こと turns a verb into a noun. 私の目的は日本語を読むができるです would be wrong, because both が and です need to be preceded by a noun in your case.

Cool, thanks, seems easier than I thought