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This is the example sentence: 私の趣味はギターを弾くことです。

My translation - Playing the guitar is my hobby.

However, why is it not: '私の趣味はギターを弾きます。’

Basically I don't understand this use of 'ことです'.
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2015-01-05T15:58:59.507
21175
2015-01-05T16:33:48.387
2015-01-05T16:04:31.600
4463
question
grammar particles verbs nominalization
Use of ことです in this sentence
Short answer: nominalization.

* * *

In this case, it's not really a quirk of the Japanese language, at least
you're doing pretty much the same in English as well.

In English, we don't say

> *My hobby is play the guitar.
>
> *As for my hobby, play the guitar.

The pattern `A is B` needs two things (either a noun, or mentioning a word or
phrase, as in _swim is a verb_ ) for A and B. So we use the gerund `playing`,
which basically refers to the act of doing the action `play`.

> My hobby is playing the guitar.

This does not mean that playing the guitar is done by your hobby, `playing the
guitar` is behaving like a noun here.

The same goes for Japanese. `私の趣味はギターを弾く` could perhaps mean `my hobby plays
the guitar`, but what you want to say is that the _act of playing_ is your
hobby.

`弾く事【こと】` (こと is usually written in _kana_ ) is almost literally the _the act
of playing_.

And `ギターを弾くこと` is `playing the guitar`, which is your hobby, ie. 趣味.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-05T16:33:48.387
21176
2015-01-05T16:33:48.387
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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answer