What to say after the plain form, part 2

Here is the next part of our list of 'things to put after the plain form of a verb'.

～ことが　あります。

This one refers to experience. It usually follows the past tense of the plain form, such as たべた, 'ate',　or いった, 'went'. Literally, the construction means 'there is a case of ~', but it's asking about someone's experience. For example: マルコさんは　にほんに　いった　ことが　ありますか。 'Have you ever gone to Japan, Marco?' Or in the affirmative: すしと　すきやきを　たべた　ことが　ある。　'I have eaten sushi and sukiyaki [at one point in my life].'

～ことが　できます。

Similar to the previous one, this one indicates ability rather than experience. Our sensei gave us this example (I only changed the name): たなかさんは　ちゅうごくを　はなす　ことが　できますか。　'Are you able to speak Chinese, Mr Tanaka?' or, less literally translated, 'Do you speak Chinese, Mr Tanaka?'

～のは　X　です。

This is a nominalizer, that is, it turns the whole subsentence that ends in a plain form verb into a noun. Sensei gave us this example: むこう　から　くる　のは　だれ ですか。 The word むこう is new to us, it means 'over there'. So the parts of the sentence read: 'over-there-from to-come [nom] who is ?', which translates to 'Who is the person who is coming from over there?' Here is another example the sensei gave us: にほんごの　レッスンが　おれるのは　いつ　ですか。　'When will the Japanese lesson have a break?'

As for the scope problem I discussed in the previous post, this is pretty tricky territory. If you want to read the whole discussion about it on the about.com Japanese language forum, be my guest. The short version: if you use ～とおもいます, you would translate it as 'I think that ~', but if you use ～とおもっています, somebody else would be doing the thinking.