watashi no shuukan wa asa ni rekishi no hon o yomukoto desu.

My habit is to read a history book in the morning.

Breakdown of watashi no shuukan wa asa ni rekishi no hon o yomukoto desu.

• は: topic particle
• です: to be
• 本ほん: book
• 私わたし: I

Questions & Answers about watashi no shuukan wa asa ni rekishi no hon o yomukoto desu.

Why do we say 私の習慣 instead of 私は習慣?

In Japanese, 習慣 (“habit”) is a noun. When you want to specify whose habit it is, you use the possessive particle の. So 私の習慣 means “my habit.” If you said 私は習慣です, you would literally be saying “I am a habit,” which doesn’t make sense in Japanese.

Why is 習慣 marked with は here? Could we use が instead?

The particle は marks the topic of the sentence—“As for my habit….” We’re introducing 習慣 as what we’re going to talk about. Using が would make 習慣 the grammatical subject focusing on new information, but the nuance changes. With は, we’re defining or describing 私の習慣 rather than simply pointing it out.

Why do we need 読むこと instead of just 読む?

After は and before です, we need a noun or noun phrase as the predicate. A bare verb like 読む is not a noun, so it can’t directly pair with です. By adding こと to the dictionary form 読む, we nominalize the action (“the act of reading”), making 読むこと a noun phrase that fits with です.

What’s the difference between using こと and の to nominalize a verb?