How do you build the equivalent of an English noun phrase in Japanese?

Question

For example, if I wanted to say "the fear of drowning" or "the desire to do something" in Japanese, how would I do that?

溺れるという恐怖？何かしたいという気持ち？

These two sentences sound correct to me (please feel free to say otherwise) but is there a way that may sound more natural and shorter?

"the fear of drowning" and "the desire to do something" (btw "the desire of doing something" is not correct English and I have fixed it for you) are both noun phrases, not prepositional phrases — Eddie Kal, Commented Oct 28, 2022 at 16:23

Eddie Kal · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-28 16:24:37Z

2

I'm Japanese.

It sounds perfectly correct to me too.

But you can omit the word "という".

The following phrases sound correct too.

feeling but digress

Strictly speaking, "desire" is often translated as "欲求", "欲望" and things like that.ref

These are little stronger than "気持ち".

Eddie Kal

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answered Oct 28, 2022 at 15:27

ysuzuki19

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1

解答ありがとうございました！😀
– Barcia
Commented Oct 28, 2022 at 16:20
I think it can be simpler... A of B is just BのA, so 溺水の恐怖, and the desire to do X is just Xする気分, so 何する気分, or even 何の気分 would be ok.
– dvx2718
Commented Oct 28, 2022 at 20:42

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