Nominalizing
“That’s the thing about U2. The band always feels like it’s coming, never that it’s arrived.” – Bono
When you nominalize something, it’s like you’re turning that thing into a single noun. It’s like you nom nom nom’d it, chewed it, and spit it out in one nice ball that you can work with. If all the words are grains of rice, what you spit out is a single, mushy ball of rice, combined into one thing that you can do whatever you want with. Hopefully you never forget what it means to nominalize something, now.
Still, I think the best way to do this is through examples. We’re going to go through a lot more – I’ll explain the first few, too, for clarification’s sake.
a [日本ご を ならう の] は むずかしい。
[Learning Japanese] is difficult
The action we’re talking about here is “the action of learning Japanese.” What did we say about it? We said it was difficult.
a [日本 へ 行く の] は すばらしい です！
It’s great [that (you) are going to Japan!]
The action of going to Japan is great! I’m assuming we’re talking about someone else here, with the “you” since it’s not specified in the sentence.
a わたし は [あの こども が ビール を のむ の] を 見た。
I saw that child over there drink beer.
You saw the action of “that child over there drinking beer.” Hopefully you’re not telling his parents this.
a かんじ を よむ の は かんたん です。
Reading kanji is easy.
a パソコンで かんじ を かく の は かんたん です。
Writing kanji on the computer is easy.
a かんじ を 手 で かく の は むずかしい です。
Writing kanji by hand is difficult.
Can you see the actions that we’re talking about? That we’re nominalizing?
- The action of “reading kanji”
- The action of “writing kanji on the computer”
- The action of “writing kanji by hand”
Once you figure out the action, nominalizing it is easy. Just throw a の on there and treat it as a noun. You can do things to nouns you can talk about nouns. It’s really great.
Let’s dive in a little deeper and flesh out a couple details that will help you to understand nominalization a little better.