こと
“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.” – Benjamin Disraeli
こと is a weird word. Simply put, it means “action” and/or “thing,” but it’s a little more complicated than that. To keep things simple, we’re just going to say it means “action” because it’s often interchangeable with the nominalizer の.
a 日本 へ 行く の は すばらしい です。
(The action of) going to Japan is wonderful.
a 日本 へ 行く こと は すばらしい です。
(The action of) going to Japan is wonderful.
Same meaning, interchangeable. Both of these are pretty common, too, so it’s going to be good that you’re learning both. There are some differences, though. With some sentences, you can only use こと. With others, you can only use の. If it comes down to it and you have to guess, I’d go with の since の tends to be a bit more flexible, but let’s go over some of the times when こと has to be こと.
In terms of things you already know, there are only a couple of verbs that use こと and only こと (there are some others, but they require you to know some grammar you don’t know yet). They are:
a こと が できる
Can do (the action)
a こと が ある
There are times (in existence) when (the action happens)
Let’s look at these – actually, they might be kind of new to you, though they are things you’ve learned before, in one way or another. Let’s go over them one by one.