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What are the roles of the two の particles in the following sentence?

> 彼はこういうのがうまいのです。
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2020-12-14T17:03:21.220
83088
2020-12-15T06:35:53.237
2020-12-15T06:35:53.237
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question
grammar particle-の nominalization explanatory-の
What are the grammatical roles of the two のs in the following sentence?
> 彼はこういうのがうまいのです。

Sounds like you're confused about both の. Let's analyze.

### Breaking it down

First, a literal word-by-word translation.

> [彼]{"He" }[は]{[TOPIC] }[こう]{"like this" }[いう]{"to say": verb }[の]{[NOM]
> }[が]{[SUBJECT] }[うまい]{"good; skillful; tasty": adjective }[の]{[NOM]
> }[です]{"to be": verb}。

  * いう is often used metaphorically, beyond its literal "to say" sense. This can be roughly similar to the English word "kind", which gets expanded in the phrase "kind of". Or English "like" meaning "similar to".  
While こういう literally means "saying like this", it's used more to mean "this
kind, this kind of [something]", or "like this"

  * The `[NOM]` marker above stands for "nominalizer". A nominalizer makes a "nominal" out of something, and a "nominal" is essentially a "noun" -- in this case, the noun is the preceding chunk.

The reason we need the first の is because we want to talk about a **thing**
(the particle が can only work as a subject marker when it attaches to a noun),
so we have to turn the verb いう into a **thing**.

The second の is a special kind of nominalizing: explanatory. In English, if
you want to make an explanatory statement -- perhaps in response to a previous
question, or in counter-response to someone's previous statement -- you'd use
tone of voice, or a "because", or you'd just lay out the statement. In
Japanese, you'd use the のです・のだ・んです・んだ construction (where ん is the casual
contracted form of の).

The です or だ on the end just means "it is ... [whatever just came before]". The
の here again acts as a nominalizer -- it makes a noun out of the entire
preceding sentence.

Translating this directly gets a little clunky, but it's basically like saying
in English, "it's that ... [whatever just came before]".

### Putting it back together

The first の nominalizes the part before:

  * 彼【かれ】はこういう  
"he ... like this"

This nominalized phrase, 彼【かれ】はこういう, is followed by the が **subject**
particle. That's why I put the "..." in the middle there, because we see that
the 彼【かれ】 is followed by は, the **topic** particle. Since this sentence has a
が **subject** particle later, we can guess that the bulk of the details are
about the subject, not the topic.

So we're talking about the subject, in relation to the topic. The subject is
こういう, "like this", or as a nominalized phrase, "this kind of thing" (whatever
it is, we don't know, but it must have been mentioned somewhere in the
preceding context).

What are we saying about this subject? That it is うまい. _(Note that うまい is
broad: "good; good at, skillful; tasty" all work, depending on context.)_

  * 彼【かれ】はこういう **[の]{●}** がうまい  
He `[TOPIC]` this kind `[NOM]` good at  
↓  
As for him, this kind is good at

Then we get that second の, as part of のです. Because we now know that this is an
explanatory ending, we can guess that this is person A telling person B about
person C:

  * 彼【かれ】はこういう[の]{●}がうまい **[の]{●}です**  
He `[TOPIC]` this kind `[NOM]` good at `[NOM]` it is  
↓  
**It's that,** for him, this kind is good at

The above is keeping things pretty literal to try to illustrate the Japanese
grammar, but it's not very natural. Depending on context, there are various
ways you might translate this into more sensible English.

  * Ya know, these are the one's he's good at.
  * He is good at this kind of thing.  
... etc.
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2020-12-14T18:13:58.023
83089
2020-12-15T01:19:14.373
2020-12-15T01:19:14.373
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answer