In Minna No Nihongo II みんなの日本語初級II 文型練習帳(Exercise 38 on page 89) there is an
exercise about のは, のが and のを, where a list of words is given, and you have to
decide which words fit best with のは, which fit best with のが and which fit best
with のを.

The question is:

> 「〜のは／〜のが／〜のを」といっしょによく使われることばをえらびましょう。

With the list of words being:

> 好きだ、危ない、忘れた、難しい、早い、遅い、体にいい、無理だ、上手だ、気持ちがいい、楽しい、知っている

The book already gives the answers for the first 2 as being:  
のが好きだ  
のは危ない

Can anyone explain why some of those words fit best with のは and some with のが？
To my thinking, all of the words that could go with のは could alternatively go
with のが, depending on the exact meaning you want to convey.

My understanding is that the の nominalizes the preceding phrase, and then the
は or が are just the normal particles. So, のは would be used to show that the
nominalized phrase is the 'topic' and のが would show it is the 'subject',
irrespective of the actual word.

So, why does it suggest that some of those words fit best with のは and some
with のが?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-09T13:08:42.540
29115
2015-11-10T07:13:05.063
2015-11-09T14:13:46.407
11663
11663
question
nominalization
Can anyone explain this exercise about のは and のが in Minna No Nihongo II?
I am just as confused as you, but using the first two answers (のが好きだ, のは危ない)
as a hint, the sorting I came up with is:

> **のが** : 好きだ、早い、遅い、上手だ  
>  **のは** : 危ない、難しい、体にいい、無理だ、気持ちがいい、楽しい  
>  **のを** : 忘れた、知っている

(I could be totally wrong though!)

## Method:

  1. Choose a topic that mostly fits all the words. (I chose **走る** )
  2. From the get go, 走るの **が** 好きだ and 走るの **は** 好きだ are both valid sentences. But the former is already known to be “correct”. The difference between the two is that the `は` marker has a **contrastive** effect. (I like running, but not something else.) This tells you that you have to pick the particle that is the **most neutral**.
  3. 走るのは危ない is very different from 〜好きだ in one way: it generally **does not take 私は as a subject**. This led me to sort the words into “words that **need a subject person** (either explicitly or implicitly)” and “words that don't”. So the `のは` batch should contain statements that can or can only stand alone as generalized truths, independent of a subject person. (It's dangerous to run, It's difficult to run, etc.)

So at least in my reasoning, the words seemed to fall into place when I looked
at whether the particle was most neutral (non-contrastive), and how it
interacted when prefixed by 私は〜.

* * *

**Sidenote** : 国語問題 are notorious among natives for being absurd, but I didn't
know JSL textbooks could be so puzzling too! There is even a famous [short
story](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%BD%E8%AA%9E%E5%85%A5%E8%A9%A6%E5%95%8F%E9%A1%8C%E5%BF%85%E5%8B%9D%E6%B3%95
"国語入試問題必勝法 - Wikipedia") parodying the farcical state of these exams.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-10T07:13:05.063
29133
2015-11-10T07:13:05.063
888
29115
answer