This is a N4 grammar point that is often one of the trickier ones for people to get their head around. However it is so common in Japanese that you would do well to learn it as it will be used in a wide variety of circumstances, including all the way to the top levels of JLPT and of course in any context which Japanese is used.
TL;DR
This grammar is used to talk about changes in state, either with intention or by circumstance. It gets variously translated as, ‘make an effort to’; ‘it became that’; ‘do things in a way so that’ etc. There are two main drivers of this meaning, the first being the choice of に＋する or に＋なる and the second being the joining to a verb via the よう.
になる vs にする
I’ve discussed this grammar point (as well as the more complete ようになる・ようにする) in a previous post and video. This will be going over much the same ground but focusing on the verb usage with new example sentences.
The difference between になる・にする is of course we are dealing with なる, the verb To Become, and する, the verb To Do. The introduction of the に particle, sometimes referred to as the Target Particle, shows that the ‘target’ of the verb is the part coming before the に.
This means that it is a difference between something ‘becoming’ something, versus something is ‘done’. This is the key point, generally when you are dealing with になる, the situation is coming about without your choice or volition, whereas にする generally connotes that a conscious choice occurred.
Some common usages of these are good to reference. For example, if you were at a restaurant and looking at the menu and then see something you want, the normal way to say this would be
からあげにする
I’ll have karaage
Keep in mind you wouldn’t be saying this when actually ordering the food. As する is a verb, all the regular changes can apply to it.
あしたにしよう
Let’s do it tomorrow
になる however is used to show when things ‘become’ something else. For example
べんごしになる
become a lawyer
勉強になるゲーム
games that become study (a reference to educational games)
Why the よう？
The short answer is that Japanese has a rule against putting two verbs together. So that means when we want to use the meaning of になる・にする with a verb something must go in between. As the whole point of this grammar is to emphasise the change in state/circumstance, よう is used. Some of you may be familiar with よう as in from のような or similar. It is technically the same word, i.e ‘appearance’.
様 よう (n-suf,n)
(1) (uk) appearing …; looking …;
(2) way to …; method of …ing;
(3) form; style; design;
(4) like; similar to; (n)
(5) thing (thought or spoken); (P)
At this stage, I generally make the point that when you talk about change in state using this grammar in Japanese, you are literally describing that it ‘appears’ that that state has come about or you’ve made a choice to make it that way. In this way, the meaning of the word ‘appearance’ is still strong.
Let’s look at some examples to get a feel for how this works in reality. This is a common grammar point in NHK Easy articles so you can look there for more examples. As always, I recommend getting a browser plugin called rikaichan (or similar) to read kanji.
ようになる
観光目的で毎年来るようになります
It became that people come to (somewhere) every year with the purpose of sightseeing.
So this type of sentence is using this grammar to emphasise that people come every year to a place for sightseeing (notice how 毎年来るよう is all together). This means that perhaps people came to someplace (being Japanese, the actual place was mentioned a sentence before so as it is obvious from context it is now dropped) occasionally for some purpose but now are coming every year for sightseeing. This could be perhaps the place has become more developed, the cultural value has increased or any other multitude of reasons.
子供が生まれてからというもの、命の大切さを以前より考えるようになった。
Ever since my child was born, I have started thinking deeply about the importance of life more than before.
考えるようになった is ‘it became that I think’ and is being modified with 命の大切さを以前より ‘more than before [think about the] importance of life’. So here, it is true that this person has changed their thinking, but it’s not due to a conscious choice to do so. It is more because the environment has changed ie the birth of a child, that has lead to a shifting of priorities etc.
体が硬い人でもベターッと開脚できるようになるストレッチ方法
The stretching method to do the splits smoothly even for inflexible people
This sentence brings up a good point, that often you will see verbs in the potential form being used for this grammar, as often a ‘change in state’ is brought about due to a new ability. Here for example, doing the splits is not just ‘done’, because most people are not that flexible. They can’t just ‘do it’. But this is about the stretching method that you do so that it brings about a change in circumstance, namely that you’ll become able to do the splits. Interestingly this book/video seems like a bit of a phenomenon in Japan and is basically the only result you get for the word ベターッと.
ようにする
Microsoft Edge が自動的に起動されないようにする
Stop Microsoft Edge starting automatically
Generally the first thing you want to keep in mind is that we can see にする on the end, so we know it’s going to involve a choice. So we’re doing something or making a choice, so that it ‘doesn’t start automatically’ (自動的に起動されない). What is the thing that doesn’t start? Microsoft Edgeが
As mentioned above, generally as にする is involving a choice, you are doing something so that something happens or, in this case, so that something doesn’t happen.
悪夢を見ないようにする方法
A method to stop having nightmares
Notice that the phrasing in Japanese is to not ‘see’ nightmares, which is why you should always being trying to consume Japanese native material rather than translating from English phraseology.
自分を絶対評価で見るようにすれば、他人のことは気にならなくなります。
If you evaluate yourself on a total scale, you will stop caring about what other people do.
Here すれば is the provisional form of する, basically setting up a ‘if’ or ‘when’ statement.
Conclusion
I hope this explanation and examples help you get your head around this very useful grammar point. If you’d like more personalised tutoring, you can always contact me via the contact page or acejapanese@protonmail.com. Also check out my youtube channel for more Japanese lessons and leave a like, comment and subscribe!
