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From the first episode of Death Note:

フッ… 楽に死なせたり苦しませて死なせたり できるってことか

I know the quoted part (up to and including って) means something like:

"one can let them die easily or let them suffer and die painfully"

What is the こと doing here? Is it turning it into something like:

It says, "one can let them die easily or let them suffer and die painfully"?

If that's the case, why isn't こと marked with が or は?

Yusuke Matsubara
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George
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    So that means... ? – Jimmy Yang Aug 20 '22 at 08:38
  • Duplicate? https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/93001/45489 – sundowner Aug 20 '22 at 13:30
  • @JimmyYang That would mean "こと" is the subject of the sentence, right? So why doesn't it have a が or は particle marking it? Also, the sentence lacks a verb or copula at the end of it, which is also confusing. – George Aug 20 '22 at 19:59
  • こと simply normalizes the entire「楽に死なせたり苦しませて死なせたり できる」. It is similar to how のだ normalizes the full sentence before it. – Jimmy Yang Aug 20 '22 at 20:04
  • I think what you are missing is the first sentence omits *that means*. – sundowner Aug 21 '22 at 02:53

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