ようになっているmade to work so that
How a thing is made to work: a door, an app, a booking system. Someone set it up that way, and the sentence doesn't say who. English often just says "the door closes by itself".
This door opens automatically when the emergency button is pressed.
You can book online.
How to form it
Verb (dictionary form, ない-form or potential form) + ようになっている
閉まるようになっている, 開かないようになっている, 選べるようになっている. Staff explaining something say ようになっています or ようになっております.
- Said about
- A machine, a building, an app, a service, the way an office handles something.
- Often with
- What sets it off: 押すと (when you press), 近づくと (when you come near), 〜ないと (unless).
- Where you'll meet it
- Manuals, staff showing you how something works, everyday talk about gadgets. It isn't stiff.
In use
The engine won't start unless the seat belt is fastened.
On this ticket machine, you can choose a language by touching the screen.
With this app, you get a notification the day before your booking.
ようになっている or ようになった?
ようになった is a change: before, it didn't. Said of a machine or a system, ようになっている has no "before" in it. It says how the thing is built.
This elevator works when you hold your card up to it.
How it is made.
The repairs are done, and the elevator is working again.
A change: it wasn't working before.
Said of a person, or with 最近 or いつの間にか, it is still the change, noticed afterward.
Before I knew it, I could follow the news in Japanese.
Close neighbours
ことになっているN4
A rule or an arrangement that people follow. ようになっている is what the thing does by itself.
In this building, you're supposed to show ID when you come in.
ようになる alone is a change that has come about. With する, someone makes it so, and you can say who.
I added furigana to the kanji so that children can read it too.
Check yourself
1What does this mean?
この
Choose an answer to see why.
2Which sentence says how something is made?
Choose an answer to see why.
More detail
People talk about bodies and the world the same way, as things built to work like that.
The human body is built to shiver when it is cold.
More sentences
The alarm goes off when it detects smoke.
This file is set up so that only an administrator can delete it.
The information you enter is encrypted before it is sent.
If nothing is done for a certain time, you are logged out automatically.
In the old system, the terminal shut down if the PIN was entered wrongly three times.
ようになっていた: how the old system was set up.