犬は泳ぐことが出来ます。
A translation for this sentence would be 'The dog can swim', right? Is it necessary to use ことが? And what does it mean?
Asked
Active
Viewed 1,210 times
1
-
1This might help! http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1395/what-is-the-difference-between-the-nominalizers-%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8-and-%E3%81%AE – ishikun Sep 13 '16 at 17:28
-
Look up "nominalizers in Japanese" – ishikun Sep 13 '16 at 17:28
-
1Are you asking about the difference between 泳げる and 泳ぐことが出来る? – broccoli forest Sep 14 '16 at 08:15
2 Answers
3
こと here is a nominalizer, and it's necessary because ～ができる only takes a noun. See this question, too. Literally, 泳ぐことができる is translated as "can do swimming" rather than "can swim".
泳ぐことができる and 泳げる both basically mean "can swim". But as you can easily guess, the longer version is more explicit about the ability, and sounds a bit more formal/technical. The former sounds closer to "have an ability to swim" rather than simple "can swim."
0
The following is pretty clear & concise :
http://study.u-biq.org/33.html
・［noun］ が できます。 --- example: スキーが できます
・［verb (dictionary-form)］ ことが できます。
--- example: およぐ こと が できます。
Oyogu koto ga dekimasu
There probably are other good pages.
