1

I've come across this sentence quite a few months ago, but I never understood the meaning of "ことないように", I've searched and found about ことないように, but I think it has not the same meaning.

This is the sentence:

松野の家名を汚すことがないようにお願いしますよ。

The translation I found is:

"Please, do not do anything that can dishonor the name of Matsuno family"

chocolate
  • 65,531
  • 5
  • 99
  • 204
MochiArie
  • 55
  • 3

1 Answers1

3

松野の家名を汚すことないようにお願いしますよ。
松野の家名を汚すことないようにお願いしますよ。

Both are correct and mean the same thing. (~ことないように sounds a tiny bit more formal to me..)

ように is the continuative form of the auxiliary ようだ. ようだ comes from the noun [様]{よう} + the copula だ. Since the よう is originally a noun, it can act like a noun and can be a head noun of a relative clause.

{松野の家名を汚すことが/のない}よう(に)
lit. (in) the way/manner [that you don't dishonor the name of the Matsuno family]
→ so as not to dishonor the name of the Matsuno family

You could see 松野の家名を汚すことがない as a relative clause that modifies the noun よう.
It has the same structure as:

{日本人が/の知らない}日本語
the Japanese language [that Japanese people don't know]

For more on the が-の conversion, see: How does the の work in 「日本人の知らない日本語」?

chocolate
  • 65,531
  • 5
  • 99
  • 204