connective N3 uncommon politewritten

のは〜のことだ — what is meant by ~ is

のは〜のことだ
Builds on のは〜だ

Meaning

Key sentence

What I'm talking about is money.

Formation

Attaches toFormExample
〜のは (cleft topic) + 名詞めいし + のことだ 〜のは + N + のことだ 問題もんだいなのは、安全あんぜんのことだ

Easily confused with

のは〜だ のは〜だ is the general cleft ('what ~ is, is ~'); のは〜のことだ specifically clarifies which thing a word or topic refers to. というのは〜ことだ というのは〜ことだ quotes and defines a named term with という; のは〜のことだ points to the referent of a topic already in play, without quoting it.

See のは〜のことだ in real sentences

Jengo shows のは〜のことだ the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.

Study it in Jengo

Sources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar. Editorial confidence: low.

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