Generic Nouns: もの and こと

Last time, you learned how Japanese interjection and other emotional expressions work, e.g. “あのう、ペンを貸かしてくれない (Excuse me, can you lend me a pen)？” and “成長せいちょうしたもんだ (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

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

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 愛あいは素晴すばらしいものだ. You have to just memorize such vague ones.

Sentence Patterns with もの and こと

Xのこと: Things about X

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?

When verbs or adjectives indicate knowledge or emotion, both sentences with and without のこと make sense.

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.

Verb + ことだ: Expressing Essential Actions

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.

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.

Verb + ものだ: Expressing Ideal States

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).

Verb + ものだ can also indicate essential states which include bad states. In this context, adjectives can also be used.

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.

世せ界かい的てきな損失そんしつの大だい部ぶ分ぶんは、Uberウーバーのドライバーに対たいする補ほ助じょ金きんによるものだとGuptaグプタ氏しは述のべた。

Gupta attributed the majority of the losses globally to subsidies for Uber drivers.

…もの: Reason

…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.

Summary

1. もの indicates tangible things while こと indicates intangible things.
2. Xのこと indicates “things about X.”
3. Verb + ことだ indicates essential actions.
4. Verb + ものだ indicates ideal and essential states.
< li>…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.