Adjective + の(は) - Grammar Discussion

The ‘one’ that…

  • indefinite pronoun
  • adjective nominalization

Structure

  • な-Adjective + な (は/も)
  • い-Adjective + (は/も)

View on Bunpro

[の takes the place of a noun that is omitted from the sentence・の turns the proceeding clause/adjective into a noun]

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I don’t understand this one lesson, actually I don’t understand this whole grammar point. I’m going through Genki and Tae kim along with bunpro for extra help. But my dumb brain is just not getting this. Please help

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It’s like if you’re saying "the hot one, the cold one, the blue one.

Which sweater do you want?

青いのがほしいです
(The blue one)

The sentence above literally says “I also like the hot one”, which I guess is translated as “of the two options for air that I can choose from, I like the hot one”.

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That makes sense, thanks.
I think the example sentences are what throws me off.

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Hey :blush:

Which part was problematic, I want to improve the grammar point with more sentence explanations but need your feedback.
I will also try to explain everything you don’t understand in a simple (and detailed) way :bowing_man:

PS
I love the avatar. Is nickname inspired by a song, maybe?

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I understand the grammar point now. I think what is confusing to me about the sentences is that I don’t understand the ‘hidden’ context. So then I’m trying to figure out what の is replacing.
So with this sentence: 「暑いのも好きだから、エアコンがなくてもいい。」there is a previous conversation about weather maybe and then the above is the response, so のも is replacing weather.

Maybe if what の is replacing was put in brackets or highlighted yellow, that might make it a bit easier or a least for me it would.


I don’t know why I’m having a hard time with this point, on other points I get it the first time.

I can’t remember where I found the picture but I use it for everyting now, it’s so かわいい.
Yup my mom liked the name of the song so much she named me after it (The guy who sang it is Marillion).

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Got it! We will try improving it according to the suggestion!

Agreed!

I love that song too, say hi to your mom :+1:

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To add to this, maybe some type of “stepping-stone translations” could be added for unintuitive example sentences of certain grammar points.

This could be a literal translation of an example sentence if that sentence is unintuitively constructed in to an English-speaking person.

An example would be my explanation in post #3.

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I like the idea!
I thought about something similar.

So this sentence came up as part of the N5 review section (see image attached). It’s specifically a review sentence from N5 Lesson 8: 11/13, the の particle. I’m really having a difficult part dissecting this sentence though. Can someone help me?

From what I understand, this lesson is trying to teach の as an indefinite pronoun meaning ‘one’. In this way 白の would be ‘white one’.

I think I’m struggling with what こと means in this sentence. 心配 is ‘worry’, 彼のことだ is something like ‘it is his thing’. Assuming こと translates as ‘thing’ and not as some grammatical structure I am unfamiliar with. Can someone help me piece this together? I just don’t get how you can get from ‘the one that worries, it is his thing thing’ to ‘the one that I am worried about is him’. My brain reads it more like the first than the latter.

When talking about feelings for someone, it’s common to talk about the “idea of” or the “whole of” that person.
こと = thing or idea
彼のこと = the idea of him
彼のことが大好きだ = I love him (I love the idea of him)

心配なのは = the worried thing, the thing that worry is applied to, the one that I’m worried about
心配なのは 彼のことだ = The one that I am worried about is him.
:warning: the person that worries = 心配する人は

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That helps a lot, thanks! Your example was great.

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I understand this grammar point, but I just can’t make heads or tails of this one example sentence and its English translation that popped up during my reviews:

彼女かのじょ素敵すてきのは ふくだけだ。
The only (one) thing that is great about her is her clothes.

If I try to translate it the way my brain is understanding it, I get something along the lines of “She is beautiful is the one that is only clothes”. I think it’s the presence of the が that is messing everything up for me. None of the other example sentences have が so I can’t try to extrapolate an understanding based on those.

Can someone break down how the Japanese is structured to give it that meaning? If I were to translate en → jp, I am naturally inclined to say something like 彼女素敵なことは服しかない。

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The way I had to think about this one was to throw out the 彼女が part of the sentence for a moment.

素敵なのは服だけだ - Only the clothes are good.

彼女が - The girl (we are talking about)

彼女が素敵なのは服だけだ - The girl (that we are talking about), only her clothes are good.

人格良くないし、彼女が素敵なのは服だけだ - Her personality is not good, the only good thing (about her) is her clothes.

The last example you can omit because it is redundant, or possibly it was previously established.

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I see, thanks! my brain doesn’t naturally parse the sentence like that, but I understand the structure now and I guess it’s just a matter of time.

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Why does 「この家の中で一番明るい部屋はどれ?」息子の部屋が一番明るい not take のは? Is it just because it is at the end of the sentence? The grammar point text doesn’t give any examples of it without the second particle.