Question: nominalization sentence

Bunpro
#1

Hey guys, new to Japanese so please go easy on me if I end up being off the mark. I was just introduced to the sentence 本を読むのは、勉強にいいです。for the nominalization particle. This is translated as “The thing that is good for studying is reading books.”

Am I right in thinking that this sentence is backwards? To my understanding テレビを見るのは、僕だ。would translate as I am the one who watches TV (lit. the one who watches TV, it is I). Wouldn’t that make the translation of the above sentence “The thing that reads books, it is good for studying” or “Good for studying is reading books”? Is this just an example of where you can create this sentence in Japanese but not in English, an error by Bunpro, or a misunderstanding by me? Clarification would be much appreciated.

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#2

Bunpro doesn’t always provide literal translations. In many grammar points doing so would unfortunately yield nonsensical results. I once loathed that literals weren’t given, but the more I study Japanese, the more I understand why.

Your sentence however can be read more literally as:

“About reading books, studying is good.” Where のは indicates that we are talking about the phrase that precedes it. Something you should also look out for is the fact that Japanese is often ambiguous and leaves out information that English wouldn’t. In this case, what’s left out would be an equivalent of for. In this sentence, for is just implied (hence why Bunpro’s translation includes it).

That is my understanding of things. It’s weird, but you get used to it. It’s helpful to look out for single grammar points that can create what would be more than one grammar “situation” in English. のは is one of those, in that you might look at it as “about” or “for” depending on the context.

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#3

I would translate it as “Reading books is good for studying.”
(Literally: As for reading books, it is good for studying."

Take note of the に.

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#4

いいです = it is good

What is it good for?
勉強に = for study/studying (に marks the “target”)

What are we talking about?
本を読むの (reading books, の makes it a “noun”) は （は marks the “topic”)

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#5

Same as you, I also believe that the provided translation “The thing that is good for studying is reading books.” is kind of reversed on where it puts the focus.

It is phrased like the answer to the question “What is good for studying?”.
But if it is the answer to that question, I would expect が instead of は.

“What is good for studying?”
“reading books is…”
“本を読むのが…”

I might be wrong …

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#6

Thanks everyone for your responses, I think I understand where I’ve gone wrong. I interpreted “のは” as the nominalization particle, when actually の is doing the nominalization and は is still working as the topic signifier. A better literal translation would be “as for [reading books], it is good for studying.” For anyone else also struggling, I can use a partial translation method to deconstruct the sentence as below.

  1. 本を読むのは、勉強にいいです。
  2. Reading booksは、勉強にいいです。(本を読むの = reading books)
  3. As for reading books, 勉強にいいです。(は = As for)
  4. As for reading books, studying にいいです。
  5. As for reading books, studying に [it] is good.
  6. As for reading books, [it] is good for studying.
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