"It's fun to sing at Karaoke."

Translation: カラオケで歌うのは楽しいです。

[azureviolin]

何で　のはv.s.は？

[V2Blast]

The の in のは is a nominalizer; it turns the verb (or verb phrase) before it into a noun (or noun phrase). うたう means the verb "sing"; うたうの turns it into "singing" or "to sing".

[Douglas402706]

This is the kind of explanation I wish I didn't have to come to the comments for. Thanks.

[Ibikineko]

But the verb already means 'to sing', that's what a verb is, a 'doing' word. So why is の necessary?

[laters-taters]

In English “to” serves to use the simple form of the verb as a noun (the -ing gerund does that too). In Japanese the dictionary form is also the informal present indicative and の turns it into a noun phrase. There's a longer explanation here: https://youtu.be/Bq3GO63D9bw

[ZeeGee3]

It's not really のは v.s は. It's verb+の, keep in mind that は is a particle.

[V2Blast]

Is this the usual way to refer to singing "at" karaoke? It sounds a bit awkward.

[testmoogle]

Not sure if you are talking about the English or Japanese sentence, however both look perfect to me. (Except for the incorrect use of capitalisation in the word karaoke — unless it's actually a place named "Karaoke".) ^^

[V2Blast]

I was kind of talking about both. Thanks for clarifying. It just sounded weird to me.

[MeiaSala]

I would not say "sing at Karaoke", but "sing Karaoke" or "sing at Karaoke-night". Maybe they omit night as per the latter and think that is enough, the borrowed words tends to be used differently depending on region. Thanks for a great explanation on Japanese use of the word sing above!

[Mokuhazush]

I have never heard "at karaoke" in English before, and I've never heard カラオケで in Japanese either. But I'm sure both are fine. You could also say カラオケを歌う(うたう) - to sing karaoke, or カラオケをする/やる - to "do" karaoke.

[Ming888288]

Question: What about 'カラオケで歌うことが楽しいです' ? Thanks.

[Lloyd76445]

Why で?

[AnaLydiate]

Indicating a place where you can sing karaoke. In Japan they have "karaoke boxes" - I have never been myself, but I have heard friends talking about them. My guess from what friends have said is that they're small private rooms where you can sing karaoke and record yourself and your friends.

[SimonTempl904058]

So, karaoke refers to the place and not the act?

[sluffflux]

Since the expected answer is a 歌うのは wouldn't it be clearer if English were "singing at Karaoke"?