So from what I’ve studied I know it can mean thing e.g. 大きなこと, big thing.
私のこと can mean about me.
But other usages are more difficult to understand.
How would you translate こと when used in a sentence like: 試験が終わってから答えを間違えたことに気がつきました
I’m doing chapter 6 in tobira and the first grammar point is ~に気がつく which meqns to notice and it uses either a noun plus tge phrase i mentioned or sentence plus こと plus phrase. I’ve come across this issue before but I’ve mostly avoided finding out more about it but since I have reached a point where I just need to understand what the actual usage for こと is, i come to you guys so can you help me out here
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In the sentence “試験が終わってから答えを間違えたことに気がつきました” the word “こと” is used to nominalize the action or event that happened before. Here’s how you can understand it:
– 試験が終わってから (After the exam is over)
– 答えを間違えたこと (the fact that I made a mistake in the answer)
– に気がつきました (I noticed)
So, when you put it all together, it means “I noticed the fact that I made a mistake in the answer after the exam was over.” In this context, “こと” is used to turn the action of making a mistake into a noun so that it can be the object of your notice.
It’s a common usage in Japanese to turn actions or events into nouns using “こと” to describe them or to make them the subject or object of sentences. It can be a bit tricky at first, but with practice, you’ll get more comfortable with it. If you encounter similar constructions in your studies, think of “こと” as a way to make verbs or actions into something you can talk about or refer to in a sentence.
… it’s like when a Japanese native speaker tries to comprehend usage of “**to**” before english verbs, or pronouns like “**that**” used in a sentence for explanation (e.g. “i know **that** you know”)
https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/ytebmj/briefjapanese_how_to_use_%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8_what_does_%E3%81%8D%E3%81%BF%E3%81%AE%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8C%E3%81%99%E3%81%8D/