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The potential form of "する" is "できる". However, "～ことができる" can be appended to
verbs to create a potential form. Hence, "することができる" can be used as the
potential form of "する". While I think there are times this sounds perfectly
natural, I wonder if it is grammatically ill-advised, as you are appending the
potential form of the verb to the verb to make the potential form of said
verb.

The cases where I find it most natural to use "することができる" is when I start off
writing or saying something, using the form "～を[NOUN]する" and when turning that
into potential form realize it's too late to change the layout of the sentence
as I already committed to using "を" (as opposed to "が") and potentially
already said "する". Then in hindsight, I feel like the better sentence would
have been "[NOUN]ができる".

**Is using "することができる" ill-advised?** Should it be replaced with other
grammatical structures? If so, what are the recommended ways of rephrasing
what would otherwise be "することができる"?

Closest related question I could find: [ことができる versus V~える
form](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/2689/%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8C%E3%81%A7%E3%81%8D%E3%82%8B-versus-v%E3%81%88%E3%82%8B-form)
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grammar verbs potential-form
Is it bad practice to use "することができる" as opposed to just "できる"?
''することができる'' isn't ill-advised at all.  
Generally, you can say ''(verb, dictionary form)～ことができる'' when someone can do
something, of course you can say ''することができる''. You don't have to care about
duplicating ''する''.  
  
There are many verbs like ''勉{べん}強{きょう}する'', ''質{しつ}問{もん}する'', etc.  
These ''する-form verb'' can be appended to ''ことができる'', such as ''勉強することができる'',
''質問することができる'', instead of shorter forms ''勉強できる'', ''質問できる'', although the
shorter forms are used more commonly in daily talk than ''することができる''.  

* * *

(I added more explanation.)

There can be a certain difference between 勉強ができる and 勉強できる。  
If you want to say that someone can study, you'd better say 勉強できる, or
勉強することができる.  
勉強 **が** できる sometimes means that someone is good at studying, has a good
record in school; e.g.彼{かれ}の子{こ}供{ども}は勉強ができる。  
This usage of 勉強ができる is the same way as スポーツ（サッカー,野{や}球{きゅう},etc.） **が** できる,
英{えい}語{ご} **が** できる. It means not just someone can do something, but also
someone is good at something. You have to make out which meaning it has.  
  
All ''[NOUN]ができる'' don't indicate this meaning, 質問できる is absolutely the same
as 質問ができる.
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> Is using "することができる" ill-advised?

**Short answer:**

No. "することができる" is perfectly normal.

**Long answer:**

If you do a quick search for "することができる" on google, you will find a lot of
hits, where some of the main ones are people voicing the same concern. "Is
'することができる' good grammar?". Nonetheless, the fact that you do get over 65
million hits for the term, and that some are from major Japanese
organizations, such as the [Japan Patent
Office](https://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjN1_-1rr3JAhVDrKYKHfGiC2wQFghHMAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jpo.go.jp%2Fshiryou%2Fkijun%2Fkijun2%2Fpdf%2Ftjkijun_ii-1.pdf&usg=AFQjCNGbQqigrAnfSkUQ7zsEz3SyI4TvEw&sig2=1LC5RKaQXyWOVqhbV-89jA&bvm=bv.108538919,d.dGo)
and the [Ministry of Health, Labour and
Welfare](https://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=13&ved=0ahUKEwiGzPiNrb3JAhUEkJQKHXqjD8k4ChAWCCswAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mhlw.go.jp%2Ftopics%2F2009%2F07%2Fdl%2Ftp0701-1x.pdf&usg=AFQjCNGg6qthbJ9jW59UWa4m_YNKiSAPzQ&sig2=87oGoqI6xuHFMqyVpccpGA&bvm=bv.108538919,d.dGo&cad=rja),
signifies that it is used widely. For this fact alone, the phrase should be
considered grammatically accepted, if not correct.

> Should it be replaced with other grammatical structures? If so, what are the
> recommended ways of rephrasing what would otherwise be "することができる"?

"することができる" is a very verbose way of saying something, and while being
grammatically acceptable, it can easily be replaced with other grammatical
structures. Here are some examples of sentences that avoid the grammatical
structure and essentially mean the same thing:

**Verbose form:** "表{ひょう}示{じ}することができる"

**Alternatives:**

  1. 表{ひょう}示{じ}できる
  2. 表{あらわ}せる
  3. 示{しめ}せる
  4. 表{ひょう}示{じ}可{か}能{のう}である
  5. 表{ひょう}示{じ}可{か}
  6. 見{み}せられる
  7. Etcetera...

"することができる" is a grammatical structure that when looked at closely, even has
some natives wondering about the validity of its structure, while
simultaneously being used ubiquitously. Although verbose, it is correct to use
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