Skip to content

する

suru

する: the hand that makes things happen

The picture A hand reaching out and making something be the case. Only what appears changes. する is what a hand brings about; なる is what ends up being so with no hand in it.

Core verbs

Where the picture shows up in する

  1. you make it happen

    今日は残業します。

    kyō wa zangyō shimasu

    I'm working late today.

    Sitting back down in an emptying office and spreading the files open again

  2. it happens to your senses

    変な音がします。

    hen na oto ga shimasu

    There's a strange sound.

    A sound that wasn't there starting up on its own in a quiet room and reaching your ear

    Sounds, smells and tastes する in Japanese — never 音があります.

  3. it costs that much

    このかばん、三万円もします。

    kono kaban, sanman-en mo shimasu

    This bag costs a full 30,000 yen.

    A bag on the counter pulling 30,000 yen out of your wallet

  4. you keep it on your body

    今日はネクタイをしています。

    kyō wa nekutai o shite imasu

    I'm wearing a tie today.

    A tie looped around your neck, knotted, and left hanging there

  5. you settle on it

    会議は三時にしましょう。

    kaigi wa sanji ni shimashō

    Let's make the meeting three o'clock.

    Slotting the meeting into the empty three o'clock row of a schedule

All of it in one picture

する is one picture: a hand reaching out so that something not there before is now there. It starts the overtime in the emptying office, makes a sound appear in a quiet room, pulls 30,000 yen out of a wallet, leaves a tie hanging at your neck, and slots a meeting into an empty three o'clock row. All that changes is what gets brought into being — work, a sound, a price, how you're dressed, a plan. So with する the feeling is less 'I do it' than 'it comes to be, right there'.

Next

See all Japanese core images