How to say that something is like something with ような

Question

Here is a sentence that I have constructed from my knowledge, but from what I have seen, I am not sure if it is at all correct.

[世界]{せ・かい}の[子供]{こ・ども}は[桜]{さくら}の[豊富]{ほう・ふ}な[花]{はな}のようなものだ。　→　The world's children are like the plentiful flowers of the sakura tree.

I ponder on whether it would be natural to change もの into Kanji.「物」

And also, would this sentence sound natural for a simile in Japanese? If something else sounds more natural or better, please tell me.

If anyone has any answer to this (or can point out what mistake I made), I would greatly appreciate it.

What specifically are you asking about ような? The title and the actual content seem to be 矛盾. — istrasci, Commented Dec 8, 2015 at 20:42
@istasci I was asking how to use ような for stating words such as "like" or "as", if that clarifies it for you. As I said in the question above, if using something different for the words "like" or "as" is there, or if if ような sounds unnatural in this fashion, please tell me. But yes, what I said above is what I'm asking about ような. If I'm wrong, then please tell me the correct way to say it. I am perfectly open to being wrong. — Ayako, Commented Dec 8, 2015 at 22:58
I could be wrong, but wouldn't the kanji for もの here be 者 since it refers to 子供? — Blavius, Commented Dec 9, 2015 at 0:44

naruto · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-09 08:23:49Z

2

Your usage of ～のような is correct as long as grammar is concerned.
"Children are like cherry blossoms" is a simile which is not widely recognized, and it's somewhat puzzling to me. Whether this is natural or not would depend on how successfully you can explain your intention in the following sentences.
This もの should be written in hiragana, because it's a 形式名詞. Using 物 is not entirely wrong, but recently most people use hiragana in cases like this.
The noun phrase 桜の豊富な花 would literally mean "flowers in which cherries are abundant" (ie. "cherry-rich flowers"), which is weird. Why don't you simply say たくさんの桜の花 (or verbosely, 桜の木に咲いたたくさんの花)?

answered Dec 9, 2015 at 8:01

naruto

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Just as an aside, aren't sakura flowers used in Japan as a metaphor of the transience of life and nature? I know the flowers bloom and fall very quickly before the cherries come in, so I can understand the confusion.
– user11589
Commented Dec 9, 2015 at 18:42

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