Verb Clauses

This is a tricky lesson because it's not necessarily new info, but it's sort of a new way to apply some of the stuff I've already learned. A few examples might help demonstrate the crux of it. English is less consistent than Japanese in descriptions of nouns. For example, I might say:

The silly cat.  OR
The cat who jumped on the table.

In the first one, the description comes before the noun, but in the second one, it comes after the noun. Well, in Japanese, descriptive clauses come before the noun even if they contain verbs. If I apply those rules to English it'll read as something like "the jumped on the table cat." Everything before the word "cat" is describing it. With this principle in mind, I can form better descriptions in Japanese. It's pretty difficult for me to write Japanese examples right now, but I'll do my best.

池で泳がない人は、好きじゃない。
I don't like people who don't swim in ponds.

Of course that doesn't make much sense, but that shows a verb clause being applied to the "person" noun. I'll try a couple more.

朝ごはんを食べない人はあまり元気じゃない。
People who don't eat breakfast are not very healthy.

映画を見ない人はつまらないよ。
People who don't watch movies are boring.

The above verb clauses are being treated as adjectives, because they're simply describing a noun. But there is a way to use verb clauses as nouns, too. I can either add こと or の to nominalize the entire verb clause, therefore treating it as a noun and being able to use it in different types of sentences. Tae Kim's guide states that こと is more generic while の is more specific.

一人で食べることは難しいです。
It's difficult to eat alone.

毎日買い物に行くのが好きだよ。
I like to go shopping every day.

友達に会うことはいつも楽しい。
It's always fun to meet with friends.

週末にゲームをやるのが大好きです。
On weekends I really like to play games.

One important thing to note is that the plain verb form is used in all of these clauses, because the polite form can only come at the end of a sentence.

That's about it for the lesson. I'll certainly need to practice these, but I think it'll be helpful to simply do more reading so I can familiarize myself with this pattern.

Credit goes to Tae Kim's lesson seen here.