How to describe a way of something?

Question

I know that when you attach ~方 (kata) to something (like a verb or noun), it means the way of... But how would you describe the way of something?

For example, if I wanted to say that "there are many easy ways to cook onigiri", would たくさん簡単なおにぎりを料理する方があった work?

I'm not really sure about this sentence because it seems kinda off, but I can't tell what.

Answer 1

There are several ways to express that. The two most basic ones:

• 方 which you already pointed out, but it should be attached to the -masu stem of the verb, so formally し方 not する方 (which would mean "a person who does something"). But again, し方 is rarely used, it's more common to use やり方 or a more specific verb. For your example sentence, the most natural would be probably 作り方.

• a more formal noun 方法{ほうほう} which attaches to the infinitive form of the verb ~する方法 or the noun ~の方法

---

But there are more problems with the example sentence than just this expression (including the English "to cook onigiri" which sounds odd, because in whatever form, you don't really cook it):

• you should attach たくさん and 簡単な to the "way" not to the "onigiri"
• を料理する doesn't fit here, as stands more for "make foot out of something"
• for a general statement (without stressing or comparison) you would use は instead of が
• あった is a past tense, but you are describing a general, present situation

おにぎりの簡単な作り{つくり}方{かた}はたくさんある