Learn to Use the -naru Verb with an Adjective or Noun to Express Changes in an Object

Posted on May 5th, 2008 by JapaneseGeek

Here is another useful verb that everyone should learn, the naru　なる verb which means “to change”. Find out how you can use this useful verb together with the naな and iい adjectives to express changes in something in Japanese. This is commonly use in conversational Japanese langauge.

Lets start off with the iい adjective.

Here are 3 examples of an iい adjective which you migh have already learnt in previous posts. In anycase, lets revise them again.

あつい、熱い - warm

さむい、寒い - cold

あかい、赤い - red

Now, what we should do is to change each of them into the く form and then add the naruなる after it. Like this:

あつい becomes あつく + なる = あつくなる which means “becomes warm”

さむい becomes さむく + なる = さむくなる which means “becomes cold”

あかい becomes あかく + なる = あかくなる which means “becomes red”

So here is a sentence example.

てんき　が　さむくなった - The weather became cold

Take note that past tense of naru なる is natta なった. And the polite form would be narimashita　なりました

Now for the naな adjective

Some of the naな adjectives are:

きれい、綺麗 - pretty

かんたん、簡単 - easy, simple

まじめ、真面目 - diligent, earnest, serious

These are the naな adjectives where you have to put the な after the word whenever you want to describe something. So if you want to say something or someone has became pretty, you add the niに particles after the noun like this:

きれい　になった - became pretty

かんたん　になった - became easy

まじめ　になった - became diligent

The same goes for nouns

ボール　になった - became a ball

おとこのこ　になった - became a boy

So now you have the knowlegde to express something that has change into a different property. In the next post, learn how to show a verb becoming able to do something in Japanese.

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