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「山口さんはアメリカに行くことにした。」

Why is this sentence translated as : Yamaguchi-san has decided to go to America

The way I was looking at it was : About Yamaguchi-san, the thing of going to America did.

Ending with : Yamaguchi-san went to America...

What am I missing here?

Benoit
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  • Because it is a grammar. にしたhas important key here once you change it to をした such as 山口さんはアメリカに行くことをした , the meaning becomes "Yamaguchi san has went to America.". I might be wrong. :-) – Friendly Ghost Jul 31 '15 at 10:07

1 Answers1

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行くことにした

its future tense, he has decided to go.

行く　to go

ことにした decided to

Saifis
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  • Oh I see, ことにした is a fixed expression? – Benoit Jul 31 '15 at 02:43
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    pretty much, there are many others that are subtle but change in meaning, such as ことになった would be pretty much the same thing, but would indicate it was not the person's decision. – Saifis Jul 31 '15 at 02:49
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    How come it's the future tense when it's いくことにした not いくことにする ? – chocolate Jul 31 '15 at 07:22
  • tricky part, the past tense した goes to the decision for going itself,いくことにするwould also mean the same thing, although it isn't used as much, at least I haven't heard it much. – Saifis Jul 31 '15 at 07:41
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    Yamaguchi has already made the decision to go to America. That is not future tense. –  Oct 03 '19 at 11:38
  • I suspect what @Saifis was trying to say is that though the decision has been made, the act of "going" will happen in the future. Of course, this is not future tense. – jarmanso7 Oct 03 '19 at 17:16