What are the differences between nouns created by renyoukei and the formal noun 「の」?


I have been getting confused with these two ways of creating nouns and been
wondering if there's any differences between them.

For instance, are the following sentences correct or not?

  * 映画を見に行った。
  * 映画を見るのに行った。
  * 映画を見が好きだ。
  * 映画を見るのが好きだ。




Don't try to freely create nouns from 連用形. There are many nouns that look the
same as the 連用形 of the corresponding verbs, but such nouns were lexicalized
long ago, and they often have different meanings derived from the original
verb. You have to look up a dictionary each time.

  * 話【はなし】 tale, story (rather than 'talking')
  * 叩き [this method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tataki) of preparing foods in Japanese cuisine
  * 生き liveliness, freshness (rather than 'living')
  * 飲み alcohol drinking (party)

見【み】 as a noun is found in certain fixed words such as 花見【はなみ】 (cherry
watching) or 月見【つきみ】 (moon watching), but 見 itself is not a noun which means
'watching' in general. (e.g. you can't say 映画見 or 映画を見). 言い, 聞き, 食べ and so on
do not work as standalone nouns, either.

Therefore 「映画を見るのが好きだ」 is correct, but 「映画を見が好きだ」 is ungrammatical.
「映画を見るのに行った」 is highly unnatural or probably ungrammatical, too.




Don't try to freely create nouns from 連用形. There are many nouns that look the
same as the 連用形 of the corresponding verbs, but such nouns were lexicalized
long ago, and they often have different meanings derived from the original
verb. You have to look up a dictionary each time.

  * 話【はなし】 tale, story (rather than 'talking')
  * 叩き [this method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tataki) of preparing foods in Japanese cuisine
  * 生き liveliness, freshness (rather than 'living')
  * 飲み alcohol drinking (party)

見【み】 as a noun is found in certain fixed words such as 花見【はなみ】 (cherry
watching) or 月見【つきみ】 (moon watching), but 見 itself is not a noun which means
'watching' in general. (e.g. you can't say 映画見 or 映画を見). 言い, 聞き, 食べ and so on
do not work as standalone nouns, either.

Therefore 「映画を見るのが好きだ」 is correct, but 「映画を見が好きだ」 is ungrammatical.
「映画を見るのに行った」 is highly unnatural or probably ungrammatical, too.

