のが上手 / 下手 — Being Good/Bad at Doing
Used to rate someone's skill at a specific action, using the same の-nominalizer structure as のが好き. 上手 = good at, 下手 = bad at.
Structure
[Verb, dictionary form] + の + が上手／下手
Examples
田中さんは歌うのが上手です。
Tanaka-san wa utau no ga jouzu desu.
Tanaka is good at singing.
田中さんは (Tanaka) + 歌う (sing) + の (nominalizer) + が上手 (good at) + です
私は泳ぐのが下手です。
Watashi wa oyogu no ga heta desu.
I am bad at swimming.
私は (I) + 泳ぐ (swim) + の + が下手 (bad at) + です
妹は絵をかくのが上手です。
Imouto wa e o kaku no ga jouzu desu.
My little sister is good at drawing pictures.
絵をかく (draw pictures) + の (nominalizer) + が上手 (good at) + です
• Cultural humility: don't use 上手 about your own ability — it sounds boastful. For yourself, use 得意 (good/confident at) and 苦手 (weak at) instead of the blunt 下手. • Skill nouns: you can drop 'verb + の' when the noun already implies the skill: 日本語が上手です (good at Japanese).
Commonly confused with
The JLPT rarely asks whether you recognise a pattern — it asks which of several similar patterns fits. These are the ones のが上手 is tested against.
vs 上手 vs 得意
上手 rates someone ELSE's skill (praise). 得意 states what YOU are good/confident at, avoiding the arrogance of self-praising with 上手.
vs 下手 vs 苦手
下手 = objectively unskilled (can sound blunt). 苦手 = 'not good with / weak at,' softer and often about dislike or discomfort as much as ability.
More preferences
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