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The Magical Power of
Suru
The Magical Power of
Suru
JAPANESE VERBS MADE EASY
Nobuo Sato
Charles E. Tuttle Company
Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan
Published by the Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc.
of Rutland, Vennont & Tokyo, Japan
with editorial offices at
Osaki Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0032
© 1995 by Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved
LCC Card No. 95-60249
ISBN: 978-1-4629-1024-3 (ebook)
First edition, 1995
Printed in Japan
Contents
Preface
It is my sincere wish that this book will encourage foreign students of the Japanese language who are on the verge of giving up due to the often painful process of memorizing complicated verb conjugations. I also hope to encourage those who are hesitant to start learning the language due to exaggerated rumors concerning the excessive hardship involved in doing so. Now you can approach the study of Japanese in a more relaxed manner, free of verb stress!
Lastly, I wish to thank the Charles E. Tuttle Company for assisting in all publication arrangements, and Lesley Martin for proofreading and editing.
Introduction
Many students of the Japanese language find themselves stumped and frustrated by the complexity and variety of Japanese verbs, their conjugations, and their often ambiguous contexts. The mind-numbing task of memorizing them all is sometimes enough to daunt even the most ganbarō student of the language. This book is intended to ease this tremendous burden. How? Via the magical power of suru, of course!
The Japanese verb suru is roughly equivalent to the English "to do" or “to make." In English, these verbs are sometimes used in combination with various nouns to create verbal idioms or compound verbs. For example, “to do" combined with "laundry" means to wash one's laundry, and "to make" combined with “(a) reservation" means to reserve something in advance. Likewise, the verb suru can be combined with not only nouns but adjectives, loanwords, onomatopoeia, and other verbs, as well. Suru is thereby capable of creating a wide variety of versatile verbal phrases or compound verbs. And the best part is that students can increase their fluency by relying on just one conjugation pattern! This unique function of suru can be a great relief to serious students of the Japanese language. Compound-suru verbs are so commonly used that they can virtually replace the majority of regular Japanese verbs, the conjugations of which would otherwise have to be painstakingly memorized one by one.
Here are some examples of noun-suru combinations:
junbi-suru 準備する junbi (preparation) + suru
• to prepare
Asu no jugyō o junbi-shinakereba narimasen.
I must prepare for tomorrow's classes.
yoyaku-suru 予約する yoyaku (reservation) + suru
• to make a reservation
Yoyaku-shitai no desu ga.
I'd like to make a reservation, please.
These compound-suru verbs are undoubtedly familiar to any intermediate student of Japanese. But wait. There's more! Through the magic of suru, those pernicious loanwords and onomatopoeia can be easily incorporated into your everyday speech.
memorii-suru メモリーする memorii (memorize) + suru
• to memorize
Korera no dōshi no katsuyō o zenbu memori-shina-kutemo yoi to wa ureshii desu ne!
I'm glad I don't have to memorize all those complicated verb conjugations!
chin-suru チンする chin (automatic alarm sound of a microwave oven) + suru
• to cook with a microwave oven
Saikin isogashii node insutanto shokuhin o denshi-renji de chin-shite imam.
I just cook instant food with a microwave oven, since I'm so busy these days.
Additionally, almost all adjectives can be combined with sum, as in the following examples. Note that adjectives end with i when modifying nouns. When combined with suru, however, the final i becomes ku, as in the following examples:
usuku-suru 薄く する usui (thin) + suru
• to make thin
Tsugi no pankēki wa chotto usuku-shite kudasai.
Make the next pancake a little thinner.
tanoshiku-suru 楽しく する tanoshii(pleasant, fun) + suru
• to make pleasant or fun
Moshi Amaria ga itara, pātii o tanoshiku-shite kureru to omoimasu ne!
If Amalia's here, she's sure to make the party fun!
This way of using suru has recently become so fashionable in contemporary Japanese that new words are being created almost daily. It's an amusing and playful