Special Japanese verbs

[Dmitry]

Hi folks. In this post I want to talk about special words without which it`s impossible to imagine Japanese language. I`m talking about なる 'becoming', する 'doing' and ある 'being'. These words play important roles in Japanese sentence:

1) なる 'becoming'

In order to understand logic of Japanese sentence and a role of  なる you need to realize that before you can say something 'is' something else, it first has to 'become' this something else. And now we need to use なる. This verb is often used in the language.

Note, that if you need to mention that something will become something else, than use に + なる:

力になります。

[chikara ni narimasu]

(This) will become (our) strength.

If it`s necessary to say that something will be something else, than put と + なる:

力となります。

[chikara to narimasu]

(This) will be (our) strength.

More examples to clearly understand the difference between に + なる/と + なる:

バンドの出演は五月二十四日になります。

[bando no shuutsuen wa gogatsu nijuuyonka ni narimasu]

The band`s performance will be set to May the 24th. (literally the band`s performance become on May the 24th)

バンドの出演は五月二十四日となります。

[bando no shuutsuen wa gogatsu nijuuyonka to narimasu]

The band`s performance will be on May 24th.

2) ある/いる/です/だ 'being'

So, it`s really interesting how these verbs differ from each other as all of then can be translated as 'being'.

Basically, です and だ are used to define something. For instance, you need say in Japanese 'this is a dog'. You need to use です or だ to desribe this 'process':

これは犬です。　or　犬です。

[kore wa inu desu] or [inu desu]

It`s necessary to use ある/いる if you need to say literally 'there is', 'there are':

犬がいる。

[inu ga iru]

There is a dog.

本がある。

[hon ga aru]

There is a book.

As you can see I used both, ある and いる. In fact it ある is used to describe inanimate objects and いる - for animate ones. That`s it, all the difference:

本が美しいです。

[hon ga utsukusii desu]

The book (books) is (are) beautiful.

犬が動物だ。

[inu ga doobutsu da]

Dogs are animals

3)する 'doing'

Well, する should be the easiest verb. As many of you are already familiar with the fact that する refers to an action. In fact, most of the times they translate it as 'do'. Although する also can be used and translated as 'deside' or 'choose':

何をするか。

[nani o suru ka]

What are you doing?

何にするか。

[nani ni suru ka]

What will you pick?

These examples show two principally different meanings. In the first sentence を shows that 何 is direct object to the verb, while in the second one に marks the preceding part as indirect object to the verb.

Also note, that by adding と to する you get the third meaning 'to consider smth..':

これが私が必要なとするものです。

[kore ga watashi ga hitsuyoona to suru mono desu]

This thing that I consider important.

That`s it for now. Any questions? Leave a comment. グッドラック