Question with this sentence わたしはえをみるのがすきです


Just started learning Japanese and have question with the following sentence.

> わたしはえをみるのがすきです

Do I have to use の in this situation? Can I just say わたしはえをみるがすきです without the
の？




You seem to be a native English speaker, so try thinking about it this way.

The sentence could be roughly translated as follows.

> I like looking at drawings.

However, could you say the following?

> I like look at drawings.

No. That is not valid English because you can only like a noun. "looking" is a
noun that represents an action.

Similarly, えをみる is a verb. You cannot like a verb, so you have to nominalize
it (convert it to a noun). That is what the の is doing, and that is why it is
necessary.

