Course Forum for vocabulary for the children’s book ぐり と ぐら: https://www.memrise.com/course/2231658/guri-to-gura-guri-and-gura/
Hello! I’m a fairly new Japanese learner. I’ve started to read the children’s book ぐり と ぐら and have created a course for the vocabulary in the book. It’s a short book (about 16 short paragraphs), but its grammar is still beyond me. I’ve been able to parse page 1 somewhat (I think), but have had some trouble with a few of the phrases (all spaces are as they are in the book; read further down for the full passage):
このよで いちばん すきなのは
Is this saying something about being the best (いちばん) in the world (このよで “in this world”) at something? I’m especially confused about すきなのは though. I know すき means something like “is liked”, but i’m not sure if the phrase is すき なの は, すき な のは, or any number of other interpretations. Jisho says なの is a “female” expression used to make an assertion, but I believe the two main characters, ぐり and ぐら (a couple of field mice) are male as just before this it says ぼくらの なまえは… Jisho says な is a particle used for emphasis, but if it’s すき な のは, then what is のは? Or の は?
おりょうりすること たべること
So りょうり means “cooking”, and I believe りょうりする is the verb form of it, so basically “to do cooking”. I think the お prefix is a politeness marker. But what is the こと suffix at the end of each of these words? Does that mean “pretending to”? Are they make-believe cooking and eating (the pictures later in the book suggest they are actually cooking and eating). Does it mean “event” or “work”? Like, the actual event of cooking and eating? Is it the こと particle, which Jisho says indicates a command, mild enthusiasm, a gentle interrogative, or is used to soften a conclusion?
Here is the full passage (is this a copyright issue? I can quote only one sentence if that makes it better):
のねずみの ぐりと ぐらは、おおきな かごを
もって、もりの おくへ でかけました。
ぼくらの なまえは ぐりと ぐら
このよで いちばん すきなのは
おりょうりすること たべること
ぐり ぐら ぐり ぐら
Here’s my translation:
The field mice Guri and Gura
set out deep into the forest with a large basket.
Our names are Guri and Gura
(something about the best in the world?)
(pretend cooking and pretend eating?)
I’d be very grateful for some help figuring this out. Thanks!
りょうりする is a verb and すき is technically an adjective in Japanese,even though we translate it into the verb “to like.”. Adding こと makes りょうりをする into a “noun” so it can be modified by the adjective すき.
Pretend to do something is verb+ふりをする。
The rats guri and gura, carrying a large basket, went deep into the forest. Our names are guri and gura. In the whole wide world, the thing we like the best, is cooking and eating. Guri gura guri gura. (I don’t know if this ending is supposed to be a play on Japanese onomatopoeia, I am horrible at them haha)
1 Like
Did you learn adjectives yet? すき is a な adjective so if it proceeds a noun it needs a な.
すきなのは is like " the thing that I like is…" or “what I like is”
の here is kind of a short hand for "the thing"and it adds emphasis to it. “There are so many things BUT the thing I like is blah blah blah.” Thing being a noun and therefore すきneeds it’s な. はis a topic marker. すきなのは
Does this make sense. I have never taught anyone Japanese before. Anyone else feel free to chime in an correct me or explain it better haha
1 Like
Just an fyi こと and の can have many other meanings as you found, what I told you is just what they mean in this example haha. Since we were talking about it, it’s worth noting that の can do the same thing as こと and turn verbs into nouns. Though that’s not how it’s used here.
Good luck!
1 Like
Thank you!
I hadn’t gotten to adjectives yet, but took a look at Tae Kim’s section on them after you said that. I’ll read up more on them until I can fully understand this passage. Knowing what to learn is half the battle 
So to summarize:
- すき is an adjective (a な-adjective to be precise). Adding な to すき lets すき describe the following noun. In this case the noun is の, which is kind of like “it”. So すきなの means something like “the thing I like”.
- こと can be attached to the end of a verb (any verb?) to turn the verb into a noun. So if たべる means “to eat”, then たべること means “eating”, as in “the act of eating”. For the sake of completeness, I read elsewhere that こと can mean a lot of things, including: “activity of ~”, “~ing”, “about/regarding ~”, “thing”, “the concept of ~”, “the idea of ~”, “need to ~”.
So given what you said, and the further research I did, a word-for-word translation would be something like:
The field mice Guri and Gura, big basket
carrying/with, deep in the forest they went.
Our names are Guri and Gura
the whole world most liked thing
is cooked food eating
nom nom nom nom
Or, in other words:
The field mice Guri and Gura set out
deep into the forest carrying a large basket.
"Our names are Guri and Gura.
The thing we like most in the entire
world is to eat home-cooked food.
nom nom nom nom"
Is that right?
Or is is “cooking and eating”? If so, where does the “and” come from? Or is it just implied?
Thanks again!
Edit: This is what Amazon Translate gave me, more or less (it got tripped up on the names, and I added proper pronouns):
野ねずみのグリとグラは、大きな籠を以て、森の奥へ出かけました。
The wild rats, Guri and Gura, went to the depths of the forest with a large basket.
僕らのなまえはグリとグラ。
Our names are Guri and Gura.
この世で一番好きなのはお料理すること食べること。
Our favorite things in the world are cooking and eating.
Now I just need to figure out where the “and” comes from, grammatically speaking. I didn’t realize you could just smash two nouns together and have it form an “and”.
I wouldn’t go as far as to translate it to “home-cooked food”. Just cooking and eating.
The の used in this way can refer to whatever the sentence is talking about, not just “thing”. And it adds emphasis to the fact that there are many possible things (in the guri gura example, there are many possible things they could like, and out of all of those, they like cooking and eating). Another example using the same structure: (I just made this sentence up)
わたしのパーティにきたのはBobとJosh
The ones who came to my party were Bob and Josh.
Here the の is referring to “the ones who” and it implies that there were many people who could have come to my party, perhaps I handed out many invitations, but out of those, the ones who came were Bob and Josh.
I think the “and” is just implied here. It could be the specific writing style. It is aimed at children. I’m not quite sure tbh.
1 Like
こと can be attached to any verb but the verb needs to be in dictionary form for this grammatical structure. (う/る)
1 Like
どうも ありがとう！ This is a huge help.
1 Like