Page 191 - Basic Japanese

“I sometimes do.”

Koko de wa fuyu wa amari samuku arimasen ga, yuki ga
furu koto mo arimasu.
The winter is mild here, but it occasionally

snows.

Amerika de wa Nihon no terebi o miru koto wa arimasen.
In America we never have the chance to watch

Japanese TV programs.

Another use of the noun koto is in the phrases koto ga suki
desu ‘likes to’ and koto ga kirai desu ‘dislikes to.’ The basic

meaning of these phrases, preceded always by a plain

imperfect form, is ‘the fact (of doing something) is liked’ and
‘the fact (of doing something) is disliked.’ Here are some
additional examples of these phrases:

Hito no warukuchi o iu koto ga suki na n desu ka.

Do you like to speak ill of others behind their
back?

Hito no namae o oboeru koto ga nigate desu.
I’m not good at remembering people’s names.

A further use of koto is in the phrase koto ga dekimasu ‘can

(do something), is able to.’ The basic meaning of this
expression is something like ‘the fact (of doing something)