How common is this sentence pattern in Japanese?


Once in a while, I would encounter "reversed" sentences like this:

> お腹が痛くなったのは食べ過ぎたせいです。

In my head, I would translate this to English to

> That my stomach hurt is because I overate.

Not the most natural way of saying things, but still acceptable. But recently,
I have been seeing sentences like "~のは、〜から・ので・ためです" more often, and it got me
thinking, how often do Japanese say things this way? How does this affect the
emphasis in the sentence if it is written this way:

> 食べ過ぎたせいでお腹が痛くなりました。




Your example sentence is a [cleft
sentence](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/19208/5010). It's a very common
pattern.

> 食べ過ぎたせいで、お腹が痛くなりました。  
>  My stomach hurt because I overate.

> お腹が痛くなったのは食べ過ぎたせいです。  
>  It's because I overate that my stomach hurt.

Broadly speaking, this の is a kind of nominalizer (that's why you got an
"acceptable" translation). But usually you should translate this ～のは～だ pattern
using the grammar of English cleft sentences, which look like "It is ～ that ～"
or "It was ～ who ～".

> How often do Japanese say things this way?

As often as English speakers say "It's because ～ that ～".




Your example sentence is a [cleft
sentence](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/19208/5010). It's a very common
pattern.

> 食べ過ぎたせいで、お腹が痛くなりました。  
>  My stomach hurt because I overate.

> お腹が痛くなったのは食べ過ぎたせいです。  
>  It's because I overate that my stomach hurt.

Broadly speaking, this の is a kind of nominalizer (that's why you got an
"acceptable" translation). But usually you should translate this ～のは～だ pattern
using the grammar of English cleft sentences, which look like "It is ～ that ～"
or "It was ～ who ～".

> How often do Japanese say things this way?

As often as English speakers say "It's because ～ that ～".

