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I'm a beginner, so I'm sorry if this is obvious: I was just reading a text which said

虫取りをしました

which, according to google, means "I took insects", which confused me at first because 取り is already a verb, isn't it? What would it mean if instead of that, the text had said

虫取りました

what role does the 取り verb play in the sentence if する is the main verb in the original?

Santiago Bosch
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  • Welcome to Japanese Stack Exchange. 虫取り is used as a noun in this case. – Jack Bosma Sep 15 '19 at 19:41
  • ohh ok I didn't know that, but I thought it might be that. Is there any difference in meaning though? – Santiago Bosch Sep 15 '19 at 21:18
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    虫取りました is not correct. 「虫を取りました」 would be fine, though. – chocolate Sep 16 '19 at 01:06
  • being fine and being correct are different though. A japanese would say 虫を捕まえる. Japanese isn't a constructed language, despite what the linguists says. There is what Japanese people say and then there is what is correct...Which do you think is more correct? What people say in everyday language, or what the scholors say is linguistically correct? – Escoce Sep 17 '19 at 20:02

1 Answers1

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I couldn't find "虫取{むしと}る" (and so "虫取{むしと}ります") in any dictionary.

"虫{むし}取{と}り" is a noun, composed of "虫{むし}" which means insect, and the nominalization of "取{と}る" which generally means "to take", but in this case can be interpreted as "to catch". "取{と}る" is nominalized by taking its stem, ie. turning its る to a り.

So in the end, "虫取り" is a compound noun that means "catching insects", and can be turned into a verb when used along with "する"; therefore "虫取りをする" means "to catch insects", or more literally, "to do insect catching".

Right leg
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  • Thanks! I've been loking online on how to nominalize verbs but only came across adding こと or の. Can you do this for any verb? Do you have maybe a link with this info? I'd like to understand it – Santiago Bosch Sep 15 '19 at 21:26
  • Yeah, there are other ways to nominalize a verb. こと and の are used in many grammar structures. They're simply appended after the verb in plain form, so 取る would simply become 取ること or 取るの. As for stem nominalization, I couldn't find any decent source except for this question https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/59902/18582 (but no good answer); basically all you need to know is that the stem of a verb is a noun (but only from a grammar standpoing; it's very rarely directly used as a noun). – Right leg Sep 15 '19 at 22:16
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    @SantiagoBosch See https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/32299/5010 – naruto Sep 15 '19 at 22:33
  • いい参考ですね、ありがとう！私がリンクしたQAは余り役に立ちませんえ。。。 – Right leg Sep 15 '19 at 22:40
  • @naruto ありがとうございます！ – Santiago Bosch Sep 16 '19 at 00:05