Adjective-No in a Question format?

Question

I'm having a difficult time understanding the use of の-Adj in the JLPT N5 grammar examples and practice I've been studying and haven't found a good resource for finding the answer. The sentence is fairly simple but I can't tell what the purpose of the の at the end of the Adj is in it. It goes:

大きいのは　いくらですか。 Ookii-no wa ikura desuka?

Does anybody have any clue? Thank you!

Related: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/39042/9831 / https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/58551/9831 — chocolate, Sep 24 '18 at 02:31

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 17 '20 at 08:18

5

の in this case is a pronoun that can be translated to English as "one".

(More precisely, it's a "dependent indefinite pronoun")

Therefore:

大きい = "big" (adjective)

大きいの = "big one" (noun equivalent)

By applying this translation, we can see the problem that happens if we don't use の:

*大きいはいくらですか = "how much is the big" (wrong)

大きいのはいくらですか = "how much is the big one" (correct)

For more research on uses of の, I recommend reading the relevant chapters of the book "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar".

edited Jun 17 '20 at 08:18

Community

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answered Sep 23 '18 at 22:04

Nicolas Louis Guillemot

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I'm not sure if this is a nominalizer. When you nominalize an adjective, the meaning becomes "the fact that it is Adj." e.g., 大きいのこと. Further evidence: ボブ is a noun; ボブの meaning "Bob's" is not a nominalized version of ボブ. I'm not sure what part of speech the の here is, however; I want to call it a pronoun, but it's not replacing a noun per se. The example sentences are correct, of course! – mamster Sep 23 '18 at 22:58
hmm yep I think you're right. I spoke too soon. I'll fix up my sloppy terminology. (fixed now) – Nicolas Louis Guillemot Sep 23 '18 at 23:00
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@mamster You can have different kinds of nominalisers with different meanings - all a nominaliser is is a thing that turns something into a noun of some kind. I'd have no problem describing の here as a nominaliser; and really, it sounds much more to me like that than like a pronoun. – Sjiveru Sep 24 '18 at 14:28
whatever the most accurate description may be, the current description is based on the wording used in the cited reference. – Nicolas Louis Guillemot Sep 25 '18 at 00:35

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 02 '18 at 00:59

0

According to "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar", page 318:

の: a nominalizer which is used when the nominalized sentence expresses a directly perceptible event. (...)

Example sentence(s):
日本へ行くのは簡単です。
Going to Japan is easy.

...

Formation:
話すのは
The act of talking

高いのは
The expensive one

静かだったのは
The one that was quiet

...

の makes a noun equivalent from a sentence.　

...

There is another nominalizer こと. の and こと are sometimes mutually interchangeable. For example, [日本へ行くのは簡単です。] can be restated as:

日本へ行くことは簡単です。
Going to Japan is easy.

edited Oct 02 '18 at 00:59

chocolate

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answered Sep 24 '18 at 01:26

hisao m

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see the comment discussion on my answer – Nicolas Louis Guillemot Sep 24 '18 at 03:15
This is very helpful. 勉強になりました。 – mamster Sep 26 '18 at 10:58

Adjective-No in a Question format?

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