ことが as an infinitive?


> 若い時にいい友達『を』作ることはとても大事だ。  
>  “It is very important to make friends when one is young.”

“To make” is not a noun, it's an infinitive. It should be “making friends” no?
I understand that it turns the verb into a gerund, but why is it in the
infinitive here? I don’t get it.

(Sentence is from the basic grammar dictionary).

P.s.: I know it says ことは but the example is listed under ことが in my dictionary.




Firstly, classing Japanese verbs can't be done in the same way as with English
verbs. The linguistic terminology is generally different because of the
incongruities between the languages. While you can call the English verb "to
make" an infinitive, calling 作る or 作ること an infinitive is not quite correct. It
is sometimes known as the Dictionary form, or Plain form, but Tsujimoto (1996)
refers to these as verbs where the nonpast tense 'ru' is attached to verbal
roots. While this may sound somewhat abstract, the broad definition reflects
the wide range of usages observed in this verb category. It sometimes
functions differently than infinitives function in English.

Secondly, こと in this context is generally referred to as a 'nominalizer', in
that it turns the preceding phrase into a noun phrase which can then be
modified in the same way nouns are. See
[this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/46565/%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8-vs-%E3%81%AE-
in-this-sentence) thread for a more detailed explanation of nominalizers in
Japanese.

Finally, the は in this sentence seems to be a standard usage, as a topic
marker. If this sentence was preceded by some contrastive statement, you could
argue that it is a contrastive usage of は. Either way, it seems to be a normal
usage. I think you would benefit from reading [this
thread](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/22/whats-the-difference-
between-wa-%E3%81%AF-and-ga-%E3%81%8C) which discusses the difference between
the usages of は and が.

_[An Introduction to Japanese Linguistics (Tsujimoto, 1996)]_




Firstly, classing Japanese verbs can't be done in the same way as with English
verbs. The linguistic terminology is generally different because of the
incongruities between the languages. While you can call the English verb "to
make" an infinitive, calling 作る or 作ること an infinitive is not quite correct. It
is sometimes known as the Dictionary form, or Plain form, but Tsujimoto (1996)
refers to these as verbs where the nonpast tense 'ru' is attached to verbal
roots. While this may sound somewhat abstract, the broad definition reflects
the wide range of usages observed in this verb category. It sometimes
functions differently than infinitives function in English.

Secondly, こと in this context is generally referred to as a 'nominalizer', in
that it turns the preceding phrase into a noun phrase which can then be
modified in the same way nouns are. See
[this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/46565/%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8-vs-%E3%81%AE-
in-this-sentence) thread for a more detailed explanation of nominalizers in
Japanese.

Finally, the は in this sentence seems to be a standard usage, as a topic
marker. If this sentence was preceded by some contrastive statement, you could
argue that it is a contrastive usage of は. Either way, it seems to be a normal
usage. I think you would benefit from reading [this
thread](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/22/whats-the-difference-
between-wa-%E3%81%AF-and-ga-%E3%81%8C) which discusses the difference between
the usages of は and が.

_[An Introduction to Japanese Linguistics (Tsujimoto, 1996)]_

