なる
- 1To become or turn into a new state or quality, used with い-adjectives and な-adjectives.Ex. 1
- 2To become a new thing, status, or role, used with nouns.Ex. 2
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A basic, neutral verb for changes in weather, seasons, feelings, jobs, age, and similar things. なる is intransitive: the subject is what undergoes the change, and the focus is on the change and its result, not on who caused it. The change may still be intentional, as when someone chooses to become a doctor (医者になる). By contrast, くする/にする are transitive: an agent makes something change (部屋を暖かくする).
Learners often drop に after nouns and な-adjectives; say 医者になります, not 医者なります.
Do not say いくなる; the adjective いい becomes よくなる.
Note that the past form なりました often describes the resulting present state, such as 'it has gotten cold'.
- ようになるN4「なる」mostly attaches to nouns and adjectives to express a change of state or identity; when using a verb to express a change in ability or habit, you need 「ようになる」. For negative-direction changes, 「食べなくなる」is more natural than 「食べないようになる」.
- くするN5「くする」is transitive and means someone actively makes an object (marked with 「を」) become a certain state, attaching only to い-adjectives; 「なる」only describes the subject's own change and does not indicate who caused it. Thus 「部屋が暖かくなる」and 「部屋を暖かくする」are not interchangeable.
- ようにするN4「なる」attaches to adjectives, nouns, or the verb ない-form to describe what the subject has become; 「ようにする」attaches to the verb dictionary form, ない-form, or potential form and emphasizes taking care or making efforts to do or not do something—focusing on effort rather than change—so they cannot be swapped.
- つつあるN2「なる」attaches to adjectives, nouns, etc., expressing becoming a certain state or identity, with neutral register; 「つつある」attaches to the masu-stem of change verbs and stresses that the change is gradually advancing but incomplete, mostly in writing. The two can combine as 「なりつつある」.
- 一方だN3「なる」simply expresses becoming a certain state or identity; 「一方だ」attaches to the dictionary form of change verbs like 「増える」or 「悪くなる」, stressing that the change keeps moving in one direction, often with a sense of concern. They are not interchangeable but can combine, as in 「悪くなる一方だ」.
なる marks a change of state with adjectives and nouns, while ようになる marks a change in ability or habit after verbs. くする and ようにする have an agent deliberately bringing about a change or making an effort, and つつある and 一方だ describe a gradual change still in progress rather than simply the resulting state.
