Hello guys! Reach a severe problem with grammar のは. Especially using it with nouns.
This sentence is actually from the book I do tests in:
いちばんもんだいなのは, やちんです。
But also this sentence is also have the same meaning and sense:
いちばんもんだいは, やちんです。
So which is correct? Which is not? And are there any differences?
In other case, is it okay/natural/right to say:
ロンドンなのは, きれいなまちです。
As I understand this is not correct.
Thank you guys!!!
3 comments
Hello, I’m a native Japanese speaker.
いちばんもんだいなのは, やちんです。 Correct and natural.
いちばんもんだいは, やちんです。 Not natural, but it can convey the meaning. “いちばんのもんだいは, やちんです。” is more natural and correct.
I think these sentences have the same meaning.
ロンドンなのは, きれいなまちです。 Not correct. It should be corrected to “ロンドンはきれいなまちです。”
のは isn’t a pattern. it’s just の which is either a nominalizer or a generic noun or part of the んです explainer pattern, followed by the topic particle は.
I think what confuses you more than のは is the な in なのは.
な is/acts like a copula, and you could theoretically replace it with である:
いちばん もんだい である(=な) のは、やちん です。
A direct translation would be something like:
What (the thing that) most is the problem, is the rent. (= The rent is the biggest problem.)
(Note that いちばん here is an adverb “most (in the first place)” to to the copula “is” な/である.)
This means that what precedes なのは must be a predicative noun phrase, that is, something that can describe something else.
In other words, something can be a もんだい, something cannot be a ロンドン (but ロンドン can be something else, like a きれいな まち).
A direct translation of
✗ ロンドンなのは, きれいなまちです。
would go like this:
✗ What (the thing that) is London, is a beautiful city. (= A beautiful city is London.)
Which probably sounds weird to you.
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The reason why
✗ いちばん もんだい は, やちんです。
doesn’t work is because here いちばん acts as an adverb but doesn’t have a verb/copula to attach to (the な/である is gone). To make this sentence work without a copula, you’d need to turn いちばん into an adjective with の: いちばん の もんだい は、やちん です。(The most important problem is the rent.)