Help with second usage of 'koto ga aru" (sometimes occ

[xmoonsirenx]

I know the first usage of "koto ga aru" which is used with -ta verbs to say " I have done/experienced something before ...."

but I am very confused about the second usage which means "there are times when something occurs/or/ sometimes occurs.

Now, if the structure "present plain verb + koto ga aru" means "sometimes occurs" couldn't the word "tokidoki" be used instead? or are they not interchangeable?

So if I wanted to say " I sometimes study at home." , couldn't I use tokidoki instead of the "koto ga aru" structure?
ex:

A. watashi wa tokidoki ie de benkyou suru. ( I sometimes study at home)
B. watashi wa ie de benkyou suru koto ga aru. (I sometimes study at home./ There are times when I study at home.)


Can someone please clarify my confusion and perhaps give me random sentence examples in romaji along with the English translation?

I would really appreciate any guidance you all can give me! Thank you very mcuh!

[mieth]

yes you can you use either. why not? how about in English. You could say "there are times when I stay up all night studying Japanese." or you could say " I sometimes stay up all night studying Japanese." right. There are many different ways to say the same thing.

[rodostajin1691]

yes you can you use either. why not? how about in English. You could say "there are times when I stay up all night studying Japanese." or you could say " I sometimes stay up all night studying Japanese." right. There are many different ways to say the same thing.

This is what I tell people all the time. There are usually several ways to express the same thoughts, by using different words.

When just beginning to learn Japanese, this can be frustrating because you learn one way to say a phrase, and then you hear a different phrase but it means basically the same thing, and it seems confusing and also it seems like you'll never understand Japanese because there are different ways to say the same thing.

English has the same thing we just don't realize it.

The only way I've found to get past that, is time and exposure to lots of conversations. I've lived in Japan for 20 years but I remember being frustrated by this situation a lot.