Page 528 - Basic Japanese

concrete meaning but means something like ‘in the nature

of things…,’ ‘it’s characteristic that…,’ ‘it happens that…,’
‘such is life.’ Often the adverb tokaku ‘likely, naturally’ (do

not confuse with tonikaku ‘anyway, nevertheless’) is added
somewhere in the sentence.

Ikenai to iu to kodomo wa, tokaku yaritagaru mono desu.

If you say they mustn’t (do something), children
always want to do it.

Toshiyori wa sonna mono o tabetagaru mono desu.
It’s natural for old folks to be eager to eat that

sort of thing.

When the expression mono desu is preceded by the

perfect, the meaning is something like ‘used to’ (that is, it
used to be characteristic for someone to do something).

Tōkyō ni sunde ita toki ni wa, yoku Ginza e asobi ni itta

mono desu.
When I was living in Tokyo, I often used to go to
the Ginza (for amusement).

O-kane ga nakute komatte ita toki ni wa, yoku ane no
uchi e go-han o tabe ni itta mono desu.
When I was in a fix without any money, I used to

often go to my sister’s house to eat.