How to turn an independent clause into a subject?

Question

こんにちはみなさん！

I was talking to my niece and she told me she was learning to play the piano, so I wanted to say "I want to hear Asuka-chan play the piano!" but then I realized I wasn't entirely certain how to structure a sentence with two verbs.

I ended up saying ピアノを聞きたい instead, which still gets the idea across fine, but I was just curious how the "proper" way to say it would've been.

What comes to mind for me is [ピアノを弾く]を[聞きたい] but the double 'wo' particle feels really weird to me... So I was wondering what the usual way to do this would be. Is there a particular particle to use in this case?

Thank you very much!

Answer 1

I wanted to say "I want to hear Asuka-chan play the piano!"

The easiest and most common way to say that would be by nominalizing Asuka's action of playing the piano. How do we do that?

It is very simple. First, form a regular sentence meaning "Asuka plays the piano."

「あすかちゃんはピアノを[弾]{ひ}く」

Now, change the 「は」 to 「が」 and add 「の」 at the very end.　The subject marker in a sub-clause or relative clause is always 「が」.

「あすかちゃんがピアノを弾くの」

Yes, it is that simple. Since this phrase has now been successfully nominalized, you can treat it like a noun. By adding "want to hear", you will have:

「あすかちゃんがピアノを弾くの + を + [聴]{き}きたい」

We use 「聴く」 over 「聞く」 when we hear something appreciatively.　Adding the first-person pronoun is optional and native speakers usually do not use it, but if we are to use it for practice, we will have:

「私は、あすかちゃんがピアノを弾くのを聴きたい。」

There are other more advanced ways to say the same thing, but this is the way that I suggest for the beginning learner.