what does this のって mean?

Question

For context, Person A admires the new bag of person B. Person B bought it on the internet. here is Persons A's response:

えっ、インターネットで買い物するのって危なくないですか。

I don't know what this のって is supposed to mean. There is no kanji in the text and simply assuming a typo of 乗る doesn't really help either. Since 乗る, if I observed correctly, doesn't only express "to get on train" but of course also "to go by train/to use the train", it could somehow fit into the context of this sentence. But between the two phrases 買い物する and 危なくない I can't muster a grammatical interpretation of this sentence. I don't know how to connect these pieces and I also don't know how to classify のって　at all (adverb or adverbial function, verb etc.).

However, here is my attempt at translation: "What, isn't it dangerous to do your shopping on the internet?" I feel like I just left out のって in this interpretation entirely, because I did, basically xD I just don't know wether an interpretation taking のって in would look any different...^^

Answer 1

「えっ、インターネットで買{か}い物{もの}するのって危{あぶ}なくないですか。」

「のって」 here is two words -- both particles.

「の」 is a nominalizer; It turns verbs and adjectives into nouns. 「買い物する = to shop」 is a verb and by adding 「の」, it can be treated as a noun -- "shopping", "the act of shopping", etc.

「って」 is an informal particle used to bring up a topic and use it as the grammatical subject of the sentence. It functions just like 「は」 and 「というのは」.

(Please forget 「乗{の}って」; That will not work. 「買い物する乗って」 is just plain gibberish.)

Trust me, native speakers could not talk informally for 5 minutes without using this 「の」 or 「って」 at least once (and that is exactly why so many questions are asked here about them).

"What! Isn't shopping on the internet dangerous?" or

"What! Shopping on the Internet, isn't that dangerous?"

Answer 2

Your translation sounds pretty good. のって you showed us is the colloquial or informal expression of のは, or sometimes used to highlight previous verb or noun. On the conversation, のって sounds more natural than のは.

It is always put after verb, and の is omitted after noun.

That is, the sentence can also be said that "インターネットで買い物するのは危なくないですか".

Here's some examples;

• It's dangerous to ride a bicycle while putting up an umbrella, isn't it?
  • 傘をさしながら自転車に乗るのって危ないよね。
  • 傘をさしながら自転車に乗るのは危ないよね。
• I guess JCB is useless overseas.
  • JCBって海外では使い物にならないでしょ。
  • JCBは海外では使い物にならないでしょ。

I hope my answer helps you.