Interchanging の and こと
“The secret of making progress is to get started. The secret to starting is to divide your complex, overwhelming task into small, manageable tasks, and then start the first.” – Mark Twain
So, you know about の and now you know about こと. How interchangeable are they? Turns out they’re pretty interchangeable.
I don’t want to list off a big list telling you which verbs work with which thing, but I’ll give you some broad tips that should get you most of the way there, and experience will get you the rest of the way (remember, making mistakes helps you to learn, so don’t be afraid of making them!).
- ことがある and ことができる of course only use こと
- Things that have to do with using your sense (seeing, hearing, etc) tend to use の. So, 見る, きく, and things that are similar to those will use の.
- の tends to be used on things that are more perceptible (that’s why it’s used on things like “to see” and “to hear” when こと is not). The only exception to this is when you’re doing the ことがある or ことができる grammar, then it’s こと.
- こと tends to be used on things that are more abstract. So, “able to do something” or “have done something” are things you can’t directly perceive, that’s why they use こと.
- Everything in between tends to be interchangeable between の and こと. Basically, the majority of verbs can use either, and it’s fine.
So, if we go back to where we were before (with すき, きらい, and the stuff before it) we can see that こと could replace の and vice versa.
a ハンバーガー を たべる の が 大好き だ。
I love (the action of) eating hamburgers.
a ハンバーガー を たべる こと が 大好き だ。
I love (the action of) eating hamburgers.
a アメリカ に 行く こと は たいへん だ。
(The action of) going to America is difficult.
a アメリカ に 行く の は たいへん だ。
(The action of) going to America is difficult.
See? Everyone loves each other in the の and こと world, which is great.
Before moving on to the practice, download and practice the next Ultimate Vocab deck.
So, now that you know about こと, の, and their interchangeability and some new vocab – let’s start using them! Practice page… hoooooO!