How do I combine "I speak Japanese" with "I like to ..."?


So to say you like something, you you could say:

[code]

    僕は[blank]がすきです。
    
[/code]

and to say something like "I speak Japanese", you could say:

[code]

    僕は日本語が話します。
    
[/code]

So say I wanted to say I like to speak Japanese, how could I combine the two
sentences?




You need to nominalize the verb phrase, because 好き is an adjective and can
only modify a noun. The way you do that in Japanese is to add a nominalizer
(in this case, の）to the verb phrase:

> 日本語を話す = I speak Japanese
>
> 日本語を話す **の** = the act of speaking Japanese

Now you can put them together and say:

> 僕は日本語を話すのが好きです。

Literally: "As for me, the act of speaking Japanese is liked." Note that you
can only nominalize a verb when it's in a short form, not ます form:

> **X** 僕は日本語を話しますのが好きです。 **ungrammatical**




You need to nominalize the verb phrase, because 好き is an adjective and can
only modify a noun. The way you do that in Japanese is to add a nominalizer
(in this case, の）to the verb phrase:

> 日本語を話す = I speak Japanese
>
> 日本語を話す **の** = the act of speaking Japanese

Now you can put them together and say:

> 僕は日本語を話すのが好きです。

Literally: "As for me, the act of speaking Japanese is liked." Note that you
can only nominalize a verb when it's in a short form, not ます form:

> **X** 僕は日本語を話しますのが好きです。 **ungrammatical**

