Using こと to nominalize a verb or sentence

Introduction to こと

Sometimes you want to use a verb, adjective or a whole phrase as a noun. You do this in English, for example, when you ask ‘Do you like running?’ The verb to run is treated here as if it’s a noun itself and not a verb. One way to do this in English is to put ‘ing’ after the verb, which in this case creates ‘running’. In Japanese, you can do something similar, and you can use こと for it. Simply put, when こと is placed after the plain form verb or after a phrase it nominalizes it, for example in the following sentence.

In this sentence ‘eating takoyaki’  is a noun and ‘like’ is the verb. 

• Main lesson: こと can be used to nominalize a verb, adjective or a part of a phrase

How to use こと

You use こと after a verb in the plain form, not in the polite form. (For the difference between plain and polite, look here) Adjectives and even nouns themselves are also possible to nominalize just by putting こと behind them. Combined with a noun the particle の comes before こと. These phrases translate roughly as ‘things related to this’. For example:

しごと (work) is in itself already a noun, but when you use こと after it, it translates to work related things. When combined with a noun こと is attached to it with the particle の.

More practical examples using こと