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I was just wondering if the following sentence was correct:

日本語の話すこと

It doesn't sound wrong to me, as the whole「話すこと」part becomes a noun, but I'm not quite sure.

I think the more standard way to say it would be:

日本語を話すこと

Then the verb 「話す」is not a part of the noun「こと」

What do you think?

Exandral
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1 Answers1

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日本語を話すこと is "the act of speaking Japanese". This is a well formed, perfectly normal phrase (not sentence).

日本語の話すこと is grammatical but weird. If we treat の as the possessive particle then we have "the act of speaking which is the Japanese language". This makes no sense to me. I cannot think of a way to parse it that does make sense.

If we treat の as the subject particle (see this) then we have "the act of the Japanese language speaking". I could possibly imagine this in some poetic context but I don't think you would find it in everyday life.

user3856370
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