Last time, you learned how Japanese interjection and other emotional expressions work, e.g. “あのう、ペンを貸してくれない (Excuse me, can you lend me a pen)？” and “成長したもんだ (You are matured).” もの and こと can express really various things, which sometimes confuses learners. In this lesson, we would like to focus on what function the generic nouns: もの and こと have.
Explanation for How もの and こと Work
| Table of Contents Basic Ideas of もの and こと Sentence Patterns with もの and こと |
By “generic nouns,” we mean nouns which don’t have a particular meaning themselves, but take an important part in context like “thing” in English. Nouns like “cat” indicate only one meaning, however, the meaning of nouns like “thing” varies depending on the context. In Japanese grammatical terminology, they are called “formal nouns,” but if this confuses you, please just ignore it.
Basic Ideas of もの and こと
| Tangible Things | Intangible Things |
|---|---|
| 飲み物: something to drink 食べ物: something to eat 美味しい物: something delicious 欲しい物: things you want |
考え事: something to think about 心配事: something to worry about 楽しい事: something enjoyable やりたい事: things you want to do |
They are written in both hiragana and kanji and こと sometimes becomes ごと. Basically もの indicates tangible things like something you can possess and こと indicates intangible things like something you can experience. However, the definition is not very clear. For example, if you say “love is a wonderful thing,” which one should you use, もの or こと? The answer is 愛は素晴らしいものだ. You have to just memorize such vague ones.
Sentence Patterns with もの and こと
Xのこと: Things about X
| [あなたは] | 結婚した日のことを | 覚えて（いる / いますか）？ |
| [Topic / Subject] | Direct Object | Verb |
| Do [you] remember things about the day when [we] got married? | ||
Xのこと is used with nouns which indicate people, places, date, etc. and express things about the nouns. If you don’t use Xのこと in the above example, it would be like “結婚した日を覚えている (Do you remember the date when we got married)？” That’s a big difference, isn’t it?
| 仕事のことを考えて（いた / いました）。 [I] was thinking things about my job. |
| 宿題のことは忘れたい（です）。 As for things about the homework, [I] want to forget [them]. |
When verbs or adjectives indicate knowledge or emotion, both sentences with and without のこと make sense.
| イチローのことを知って（いる / いますか）？ Do [you] know things about Ichiro? |
| イチローを知って（いる / いますか）？ Do [you] know Ichiro? |
| 田中さんのことが・が 好きなん（だ / です）。 [I] like Tanaka-san (*Both have the same meaning). |
You can replace のこと with について, which is the counterpart to “about” in English depending on the context. について sounds more formal than のこと.
| 結婚した日について覚えて（いる / いますか）？ |
| 仕事について考えて（いた / いました）。 |
| 宿題については忘れたい（です）。 |
| イチローについて知って（いる / いますか）？ |
| 田中さん について・のことが・が 好きなん（だ / です）。 |
[adsense]
Verb + ことだ: Expressing Essential Actions
| [それは] | たくさん本を読むことだ |
| [Topic / Subject] | Essential Action |
| [It’s] by reading a lot of books. *Said when you’re asked “how can I improve my Japanese?” |
|
When you attach だ to the nominalizer こと, your speech indicates essential actions. Since this may have a touch of advice, your speech would sound condescending if you directly used this with those who are higher in status.
| 大事なことは人を信じること（だ / です）よ。 What is important is trusting people. |
| 日本語を身につけたいなら、ローマ字を使わないこと（だ / です）。 If [you] want to master Japanese, don’t use the Roman alphabets. |
| 睡眠時間を減らさないこと（だ / です）。 Don’t decrease sleeping hours. |
If you apply the negative form for ことだ, your speech will indicate unnecessary actions. Be careful, the negative form of ことだ here should be ことはない. ことじゃない indicates plain negative sentences.
| ローマ字を使うことはない（です）。 [You] don’t have to use the Roman alphabets. |
| ローマ字を使うことじゃない（です）。 [It’s] not using the Roman alphabets. |
| 睡眠時間を減らすことはない（です）。 [You] don’t have to decrease sleeping hours. |
| 睡眠時間を減らすことじゃない（です）。 [It’]s not decreasing sleeping hours. |
Verb + ものだ: Expressing Ideal States
| 大学生は | たくさん本を読むものだ |
| Topic / Subject | Ideal State |
| University students must be the ones that read a lot of books. | |
Verb + ものだ indicates ideal states. This is generally used with the topic particle は and expresses public opinions. Thus, you cannot use this for specific people and things. Be careful. Even the topic part is sometimes omitted (*Look at the third example).
| 挨拶は元気よくするもの（だ / です）。 Greetings must be the ones that are said lively. |
| 試合に負けても、アスリートは泣かないもの（だ / です）。 Even if [they] lose, athletes must be the ones that don’t cry. |
| 困ったら、助け合うもの（だ / です）。 If [people] are in trouble, [people] must be the ones that help each other. |
Verb + ものだ can also indicate essential states which include bad states. In this context, adjectives can also be used.
| 赤ちゃんはよく泣くもの（だ / です）。 Babies must be the ones that often cry. |
| 薬は苦いもの（だ / です）。 Medicines must be bitter ones. |
ものだ has one more function, which is to explain causation, backgrounds, impacts, etc. of events. This is often seen in news. The following sentence is a quote from actual news given by CNET Japan.
世界的な損失の大部分は、Uberのドライバーに対する補助金によるものだとGupta氏は述べた。
Gupta attributed the majority of the losses globally to subsidies for Uber drivers.
…もの: Reason
| 本は読みたくない。 | 難しいんだ（もん / もの）。 |
| Conclusion | Reason |
| As for books, [I] don’t want to read [them] because [they] are difficult. | |
…もの has the same function as …から to indicate reasons, but sounds more casual. This is generally used by women and children. Unlike …から, …もの can only be used at the end of sentences, i.e. you cannot make compound sentences by using もの. If you say もん, your speech will sound more casual.
| 薬は飲みたくない。苦い（もん / もの）。 As for medicines, [I] don’t want to take [it] because [it] is bitter. |
| イチローは人気だよ。かっこいいんだ（もん / もの）。 Ichiro is popular because [he] is cool. |
Summary
- もの indicates tangible things while こと indicates intangible things.
- Xのこと indicates “things about X.”
- Verb + ことだ indicates essential actions.
- Verb + ものだ indicates ideal and essential states.
- …もの has the same meaning as から, but sounds more causal, feminine, and childlike.
This is how もの and こと work. Because of the large number of the functions, you might be able to memorize all of them at once. Don’t worry. Frankly speaking, the frequency of use is not very high apart from the No.2 in the summary. In fact, expressions like attaching something to nouns has an important role. Next, you will learn more about prefix and suffix.
