Friday, April 8, 2022

~koto ni suru ~ことにする - Meaning in Japanese

In Japanese, ~koto ni suruことにする (also spelled事にする, koto こと, plus ni に adverbial copula, plus suru する) means "to decide" or "to make it so" that things will turn out in a way when the relative clause qualifying koto is in nonpast form (future tense), or "to pretend" things have turned in a way when the relative clause is in past form.

  • Tarou ga shinu
    太郎が死ぬ
    Tarou will die. (in the future.)
  • {{Tarou ga shinu} koto ni} suru
    太郎が死ぬことにする
    [I] will decide/make it so that {{Tarou will die (in the future)}}. (e.g. I'm writing a story and was deciding whether he lives or dies, and I'll make it so he dies.)
  • {{Tarou ga shinu} koto ni} shita
    太郎が死ぬことにした
    [I] decided/made so that {{Tarou will die (in the future)}}. (I already changed the story, or already decided it, but he hasn't died yet.)
  • Tarou ga shinda
    太郎が死んだ
    Tarou died. (in the past.)
  • {{Tarou ga shinda} koto ni} suru
    太郎が死んだことにする
    [I] will pretend/make so that (in the future) that {{Tarou has died (in the past)}}. (I'll tell everybody that's what happened, even if that's not true..)
  • {{Tarou ga shinda} koto ni} shita
    太郎が死んだことにした
    [I] pretended/made so that (in the past) that {{Tarou died (in the past)}}. (we managed to hide the truth by manipulating the newspapers and mass media, so now everybody thinks he died.)
私はなにも聞かなかった事にするわ! ま またね源蔵さん!
Manga: Kemono Michi けものみち (Chapter 4)

Grammar

See the article about suru する for details on grammar. This article is mainly for examples.

The phrase ~koto ni naru ~ことになる (unaccusative) forms an ergative verb pair with ~koto ni suru ~ことにする (causative), i.e. if you X koto ni suru, that means you "cause" X koto ni naru.

  • {tabako wo suwanai} koto ni shite-iru
    タバコを吸わないことにしている
    [I] have been making it so that {[I] don't smoke cigars}.
    • Is the causative of:
    • {tabako wo suwanai} koto ni natte-iru
      タバコを吸わないことになっている
      Things have been turning out so that {[I] don't smoke cigars}.
    • In both sentences the fact that "I haven't been smoking cigars lately" is the same, but with ni suru we have a causer—I've been deliberately keeping myself from smoking—while with ni naru there's no explicit causer—that's how things have been for a while now for some reason.

Examples

私はなにも聞かなかった事にするわ! ま またね源蔵さん!
Manga: Kemono Michi けものみち (Chapter 4)
  • Context: a furry declares his love for a married kemono character who apparently wears only an apron. Unsure of what to do, she runs away.
  • watashi wa {nanimo kikanakatta} koto ni suru wa!
    私はなにも聞かなかった事にする
    I'll pretend {[I] didn't hear anything}!
    (>//w//< *blushes through fur*)
    I'll pretend you didn't tell me this!
    • I won't even tell my husband about it!
    • Let's forget this happened, okay?!
  • ma, mata ne, Genzou-san!
     またね源蔵さん!
    [Goodbye], Genzou-san!
    • mata - "again," as in "see you again," can be used to say bye.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Leave your komento コメント in this posuto ポスト of this burogu ブログ with your questions about Japanese, doubts or whatever!

All comments are moderated and won't show up until approved. Spam, links to illegal websites, and inappropriate content won't be published.

You're viewing the mobile version of the site.
Desktop version.