What is the difference between は and のは?

Question

The following sentence means "seeing all the different foreign people was interesting." This, according to my Japanese friends is incorrect: > 色々な外国人を見ているは面白かった。 ... and this is correct: > 色々な外国人を見ているのは面白かった。 To me, the difference is so subtle that I can't really get a feel for how the presence of の really changes it. Can someone provide an explanation that clarifies what makes の important in this situation? Update: I'm actually still confused by this. Couldn't the first example mean "Looking at the various foreigners was interesting", and the second example mean "That I was looking at the various foreigners was interesting"?

Answer 1

one sentence shouldn't have 2 verbs. 見ている、かったare verbs. you should make first verb make noun.

You can nominalize a sentence , turn it into a noun clause by using the particle の

I hope this would help you to understand ,

　敬子（けいこ）

Answer 2

Hi, Bobby!

Essentially, "色々な外国人を見ているは面白かった" simply wouldn't make for a grammatically correct sentence in Japanese. The reason why "色々な外国人を見ているのは面白かった" is correct is because "のは" makes the verb "見ている" into a verb clause, such that what we are doing is describing the act itself (rather than just stating what we are doing).

Note the distinction between these two different (and correct) Japanese sentences:

色々な外国人を見ている。>> I'm watching various foreigners.

色々な外国人を見ているのは面白かった。>> Watching various foreigners is interesting.

I hope this helps! Be sure to watch the video I've recorded for you for more details. Also, feel free to contact me for Japanese lessons, and thank you for your question. またね！

- Kelsey P.