する
See also: ずる
Japanese
Etymology 1
| Alternative spelling |
|---|
| 為る |
From Old Japanese root verb す (su, “to do”).[1][2] Cognate with Okinawan すん (sun).
As with all verbs, during the Middle Japanese stage in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, the 終止形 (shūshikei, “terminal or sentence-ending form”) was gradually lost as the 連体形 (rentaikei, “attributive form”) came to be used for both the attributive and terminal grammatical roles, realigning the conjugations.
Pronunciation
- (Tokyo) する [sùrú] (Heiban – [0])[2][3]
- (Mishima) する [súꜜrù] (Atamadaka – [1])[4]
- IPA(key): [sɨᵝɾɯ̟ᵝ]
- Tokyo pitch accent of conjugated forms of "する"
| Source: Online Japanese Accent Dictionary | |||
| Stem forms | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal (終止形) Attributive (連体形) | する | する | [sùrú] |
| Imperative (命令形) | しろ せよ | しろ せよ | [shìró] [séꜜyò] |
| Key constructions | |||
| Passive | される | される | [sàrérú] |
| Causative | させる | させる | [sàsérú] |
| Potential | できる | できる | [dèkíꜜrù] |
| Volitional | しよう | しよー | [shìyóꜜò] |
| Negative | しない | しない | [shìnáí] |
| Negative perfective | しなかった | しなかった | [shìnáꜜkàttà] |
| Formal | します | します | [shìmáꜜsù] |
| Perfective | した | した | [shìtá] |
| Conjunctive | して | して | [shìté] |
| Hypothetical conditional | すれば | すれば | [sùréꜜbà] |
Verb
する • (suru) transitive or intransitive suru (stem し (shi), past した (shita))
- (intransitive)
- (of inanimate objects) to exist; to come up
- 稲光がする
- inabikari ga suru
- Lightning occurred.
- においがする
- nioi ga suru
- There is a smell.
- 稲光がする
- (of a specified state; of a specified quality) to exist (in someone or something)
- がっしりした骨組み
- gasshiri shita honegumi
- a rigid structure
- がっしりした骨組み
- to be worth; to have the value of
- 五億円もする絵
- gooku en mo suru e
- a painting worth 500 million yen
- 五億円もする絵
- (of time) to pass; to elapse
- 一年もすれば忘れるだろう
- ichinen mo sureba wasureru darō
- It will be forgotten after one year.
- 一年もすれば忘れるだろう
- (of inanimate objects) to exist; to come up
- (transitive)
- to do; to perform an action
- 何をしていますか。
- Nani o shite imasu ka.
- What are you doing?
- 何をしていますか。
- to act as; to play a role of
- 私が司会をする
- watashi ga shikai o suru
- I am the anchorman.
- 私が司会をする
- to render; to make become (used as the suppletive causative form of なる (naru))
- Usually "A を B に / と + する ", to make A become B.
- 息子を先生にする
- musuko o sensei ni suru
- He is training his son to become a teacher.
- 一人にしないで
- hitori ni shinaide
- please don't leave me alone
- 部屋を綺麗にする
- heya o kirei ni suru
- to clean up one's room
- (to be in a specified state; to have a specified quality) to be
- 怖い目つきをする
- kowai metsuki o suru
- to have an intimidating glare
- いい子にしなさいね
- ī ko ni shinasai ne
- Be a good boy.
- 怖い目つきをする
- to wear (accessories)
- ネクタイをする。
- Nekutai o suru.
- I wear a necktie.
- ネクタイをする。
- to decide; to choose or to make a judgment
- まあ、これでよしとしよう
- mā, kore de yoshi to shiyō
- Alright, let's go with that.
- 出場を取りやめにする
- shutsujō o toriyame ni suru
- I decided to quit the competition.
- まあ、これでよしとしよう
- (informal) to do it; to have sex
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:性交する
- to do; to perform an action
- (auxiliary)
- "Adverb + する", forming predicates or attributives from adverbs.
- いらいら (iraira, “(adverb) irritated”) - いらいらする気持ち (iraira suru kimochi, “feeling of irritation”)
- "Verbal noun + emphatic particle (e.g. は, も, こそ, さえ) + する ", emphasizing the verb.
- 雪は降りはしたが積もらなかった
- yuki wa furi wa shita ga tsumoranakatta
- It did snow, but the snow did not pile up.
- 雪は降りはしたが積もらなかった
- "Volitional form of verb + と + する": to be about to; to incline to
- 日が沈もうとしている
- hi ga shizumō to shite iru
- The sun is about to set.
- 日が沈もうとしている
- "に / と + する", to give a condition or standpoint, either real or hypothetical: if / since; assuming that / now that
- 習作とすれば上々の出来だ
- shūsaku to sureba jōjō no deki da
- It is of a considerably good quality as for a practice writing.
- 親としては心配するのは当然だ
- oya to shite wa shinpai suru no wa tōzen da
- It's inevitable to worry about that if you were the parent.
- どんなに急いだにしても間に合わなかっただろう
- donna ni isoida ni shite mo ma ni awanakatta darō
- It would never have been done in time no matter how hard we had worked.
- 習作とすれば上々の出来だ
- (humble) "御/御 + verbal noun + する", a humble form of the verb.
- Antonym: なる
- Synonym: 致す
- 届ける (todokeru, “to deliver”) — お届けする (o-todoke suru, “to deliver”, humble)
- 伴 (tomo, “company”) — お伴します (o-tomo shimasu, “to accompany”, humble)
- 案内する (annai suru, “to guide”) — ご案内します (go-annai shimasu, “to guide”, humble)
- "Adverb + する", forming predicates or attributives from adverbs.
Usage notes
- The verb する (“to do”) is seldom written in kanji (為る).
- It is common to use する after certain nouns to indicate that the noun is being done; this is highly productive, meaning many nouns can be used as verbs in this way. Some examples are:
- 勉強 (benkyō, “studying”) → 勉強する (benkyō suru, “to do studying” → “to study”)
- 旅行 (ryokō, “journey”) → 旅行する (ryokō suru, “to do journey” → “to travel”)
- アップロード (appurōdo, “upload”) → アップロードする (appurōdo suru, “to do uploading” → “to upload”)
- Most verbal nouns are Sino-Japanese words (usually two-kanji), but some are of native (和語 (wago)) or foreign origin (外来語 (gairaigo)). Most verbal nouns can be separated from the ending する (suru) by inserting を (o, object particle); in addition to 日本語を勉強する (Nihongo o benkyō suru, “to study Japanese”) you can say 日本語の勉強をする (Nihongo no benkyō o suru, “to do the studying of Japanese”). (You cannot say *日本語を勉強をする (Nihongo o benkyō o suru, literally “to [do studying]verb Japanese”), despite Korean 일본어를 공부를 하다 (Ilboneo-reul gongbu-reul hada). Modern Japanese cannot have multiple direct objects.) However, some verbal nouns are bound to the ending する (suru) and treated as single words in dictionaries:
- Sino-Japanese (usually one-kanji): 関する (kansuru, “to concern”), from 関 (kan, “relation, connection”)
- Native: 私する (watakushisuru, “to appropriate, to privatize”), from 私 (watakushi, “private matter”)
- Such verbs can be thought of as morphologically instead of syntactically derived. Sometimes further shape changes may take place:
- For some verbs the する (suru) optionally changes to す (su), with type 1 (godan) conjugation: 訳する (yakusuru, “to translate”) usually appears in the shape 訳す (yakusu) and favors the forms 訳さない (yakusanai) over 訳しない (yakushinai), 訳そう (yakusō) over 訳しよう (yakushiyō), etc.
- For some verbs the する (suru) is voiced as ずる (zuru), then optionally changes to じる (jiru) with type 2 (ichidan) conjugation: 感ずる (kanzuru) → 感じる (kanjiru, “to feel”), 信ずる (shinzuru) → 信じる (shinjiru, “to believe”). When they are not changed to type 2 conjugation, they make passive and causative forms ending in -zerareru/-zesaseru: the passive form of “to believe” is 信ぜられる (shinzerareru) if not 信じられる (shinjirareru), but never *信ざれる (shinzareru). Most of these are derived from single Sino-Japanese kanji ending in a nasal (-m, -n, -ng) in Middle Chinese, but not all kanji ending in a nasal in Middle Chinese voice the following する (suru) to ずる (zuru); compare 感ずる (kanzuru) → 感じる (kanjiru, “to feel”) with 関する (kansuru, “to concern”). Furthermore, the voicing also occurs for some kanji whose Japanese reading ends in a long sound erroneously traced back to Middle Chinese -ng: 報ずる (hōzuru) → 報じる (hōjiru, “to report”), 投ずる (tōzuru) → 投じる (tōjiru, “to throw”), as well as some native stems: 重んずる (omonzuru) → 重んじる (omonjiru, “to hold in high esteem”), 甘んずる (amanzuru) → 甘んじる (amanjiru, “to content oneself with”), etc.
- The potential form of する (suru) is the suppletive verb できる (dekiru). Verbal nouns that are not bound to the する (suru) can form potential forms by changing the する (suru) to できる (dekiru) directly: 理解できる (rikai dekiru, “to be able to understand”).
- In headlines and enumeration of events, the ending する (suru) can be dropped, leaving the verbal noun at the end of the sentence provided that it is not bound:
- 午後２時に到着。 ― Gogo niji ni tōchaku. ― Arrived at 2 PM.
- See also Category:Japanese suru verbs.
Conjugation
Conjugation of "する" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs.)
| Stem forms | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imperfective (未然形) | さ・し・せ* | sa shi se* | ||
| Continuative (連用形) | し | shi | ||
| Terminal (終止形) | する | suru | ||
| Attributive (連体形) | する | suru | ||
| Hypothetical (仮定形) | すれ | sure | ||
| Imperative (命令形) | せよ¹ しろ² | seyo¹ shiro² | ||
| Key constructions | ||||
| Passive | される | sareru | ||
| Causative | させる さす | saseru sasu | ||
| Potential | できる | dekiru | ||
| Volitional | しよう | shiyō | ||
| Negative | しない | shinai | ||
| Negative continuative | せず | sezu | ||
| Formal | します | shimasu | ||
| Perfective | した | shita | ||
| Conjunctive | して | shite | ||
| Hypothetical conditional | すれば | sureba | ||
| * The sa- imperfective occurs in Kansai dialect and in certain set phrases, and forms the base of the passive and causative conjugations sareru, saseru, and sasu. The se- imperfective occurs in Classical Japanese and in other set phrases, and forms the base of the negative continuative conjugation sezu. The shi- imperfective is most common in Tokyo-standard everyday modern Japanese for forming the base of the negative conjugation shinai. ¹ Written imperative² Spoken imperative | ||||
Classical conjugation of "す" (サ行変格活用, see Appendix:Japanese verbs.)
| Stem forms | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Irrealis (未然形) | せ | se | |
| Continuative (連用形) | し | si | |
| Terminal (終止形) | す | su | |
| Attributive (連体形) | する | suru | |
| Realis (已然形) | すれ | sure | |
| Imperative (命令形) | せよ | seyo | |
| Key constructions | |||
| Negative | せず | sezu | |
| Contrasting conjunction | すれど | suredo | |
| Causal conjunction | すれば | sureba | |
| Conditional conjunction | せば | seba | |
| Past tense (firsthand knowledge) | しき | siki | |
| Past tense (secondhand knowledge) | しけり | sikeri | |
| Perfect tense (conscious action) | しつ | situ | |
| Perfect tense (natural event) | しぬ | sinu | |
| Perfect-continuative tense | せり したり | seri sitari | |
| Volitional | せむ | semu | |
Synonyms
- (to do): 致す (itasu) (humble)
- (to do): やる (yaru) (colloquial)
- (to do): 成す, 為す (nasu) (somewhat archaic, usage is more limited)
- (to do): 行う (okonau, “to carry out”)
- (used to make a verb): 〜る (-ru), a much less productive suffix for turning a noun into a verb
See also
- す (su)
Etymology 2
Reading for various kanji spellings.
Verb
する • (suru)
Various verbs deriving from senses similar to “to slide” or “to rub”:
- 刷る, 摺る: to print something (from the way the paper would be placed on the printing block and rubbed)
- 掏る: to pick someone's pocket (possibly from the way a pickpocket must slide along unnoticed;[5] compare English slick)
- 擦る, 摩る, 磨る, 擂る: to slide, to rub, to chafe, to strike (as in a match, by rubbing); to lose or waste money
- 剃る: irregular reading for 剃る (soru, “to shave”)
References
- “為”, in 日本国語大辞典 (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, “Nihon Kokugo Daijiten”) (in Japanese), 2nd edition, Tōkyō: Shogakukan, 2000, →ISBN
- 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
- 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, →ISBN
- Uwano, Zendo (2002-10-31), “見島方言の用言のアクセント調査報告 [A Report on the Accentual Surveys of Verbs and Adjectives in the Mishima Dialect]”, in 環太平洋の「消滅に瀕した言語」にかんする緊急調査研究 [Endangered languages of the Pacific Rim], ISSN 1346-082X