開く・
Many Japanese verbs come in pairs: 開く・開ける, 上がる・上げる, 始まる・始める. One says what happens to a thing, and the thing takes が: the door opens. The other says what someone does to it, and the thing takes を: I open the door.
It happens
thing + が + 開く
The intransitive verb of the pair. Whoever did it, if anyone did, isn't in the sentence.
Someone does it
(person + が) + thing + を + 開ける
The transitive verb of the pair.
Two verbs where English has one
The key fell to the floor.
What happened to the key. It takes が.
My younger brother dropped the key.
What someone did to the key. It takes を.
English has "fall" and "drop" for that pair, but more often it uses one verb both ways: the meeting starts, I start the meeting. Japanese has two, so each pair is two words to learn. Dictionaries mark the が kind intransitive (自動詞) and the を kind transitive (他動詞).
The meeting begins at nine.
始まる: it starts. は is standing in for が.
The department head started the meeting.
始める: someone starts it.
The common pairs
| It happens: が | Someone does it: を | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 開く | 開ける | open |
| 閉まる | 閉める | close |
| つく | つける | come on, turn on |
| 消える | 消す | go out, turn off |
| 始まる | 始める | start |
| 止まる | 止める | stop |
| 入る | 入れる | go in, put in |
| 出る | 出す | come out, take out |
| 上がる | 上げる | go up, raise |
| 落ちる | 落とす | fall, drop |
| 壊れる | 壊す | break |
| 起きる | 起こす | wake up, wake someone |
| 決まる | 決める | be decided, decide |
| 見つかる | 見つける | be found, find |
The が side can be a person. 私が起きる is "I get up": I do it, but not to anything. 母が私を起こす is "my mother wakes me".
Telling them apart
Two hints. When one verb of a pair ends in す, it is the transitive one: 消す, 出す, 落とす, 壊す. When the two differ in one kana, an a sound against an e sound, as in 閉まる・閉める (ま, め) and 上がる・上げる, the a one is nearly always intransitive.
The rest have to be learned one by one. In 開く・開ける the longer verb is the transitive one; in 割れる・割る (break) the longer verb is the intransitive one. A pair sticks best with its particles: ドアが開く, ドアを開ける.
Japanese often leaves the person out
The intransitive verb doesn't say that nobody did it. It just doesn't mention them. Where English names a person, Japanese very often talks about the thing.
The doors are closing. Please be careful.
What you hear on train platforms. The conductor closes them, but the announcement is about the doors.
My wallet has turned up.
English would more likely say "I found my wallet".
The date of the trip has been decided.
English: "we've decided on the date".
When you did it
It works the other way when something is your fault. The intransitive verb sounds as if the thing broke by itself, so to own up people use the transitive one, often with てしまう.
Is open, is on, is broken
With these pairs, how something is now is the intransitive verb with ている: it opened, and it is still open.
The door is slightly open.
The light is on, so someone is still there.
Not said: 窓が
(The window is open.)
窓が開いています. 開ける needs someone who is opening it.
This watch is broken.
Intransitive: the state it is in.
They are tearing down an old house next door.
Transitive: someone is doing it now.
Close neighbours
てあるN4
開いている is how the window is. 開けてある, on the transitive verb, adds that someone opened it for a reason and left it so.
The window has been left slightly open, so please do not close it.
起こされる is the passive of the transitive 起こす, so someone did it, named or not. 起きました only says he woke up.
My younger brother was woken by our mother.
をN5
を doesn't always mean a transitive verb. With a verb of moving it marks the place you pass through or leave, and those verbs are intransitive: 道を歩く, 家を出る.
I run along this road every morning.
After a verb stem, this pair says something is finished: 書き上げる, to finish writing; でき上がる, to be finished.
She finished writing the short story in one night.
Check yourself
1Which one fits?
寒いので、
Choose an answer to see why.
2"The light is off."
電気が
Choose an answer to see why.
More detail
One verb for both
A few verbs do both jobs, and only the particle changes. Some する verbs are like this, and so is 終わる: a teacher closes a class with これで授業を終わります. The kanji of 開く read ひらく is one too: 花が開く, 本を開く.
The person in charge ended the work at five.
With を, the same verb.
More pairs
| It happens: が | Someone does it: を | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 下がる | 下げる | go down, lower |
| 変わる | 変える | change |
| 集まる | 集める | gather, collect |
| 直る | 直す | get fixed, fix |
| 沸く | 沸かす | boil |
| 増える | 増やす | increase |
| 汚れる | 汚す | get dirty, make dirty |
| なくなる | なくす | go missing, lose |
| 並ぶ | 並べる | line up |
| 届く | 届ける | arrive, deliver |
| 割れる | 割る | break, smash |
| 焼ける | 焼く | burn, bake or grill |
More sentences
The door closed quietly.
The clerk closed the door.
The water has boiled.
My mother boiled some water.
A car stopped in front of the store.
The driver stopped the car in front of the store.
The temperature rose suddenly.
The staff member raised the room temperature by two degrees.
As scheduled, the curtain rose.
Someone raised it, on schedule. The sentence stays with the curtain.