Every-so-often Grammar/Phrase/Word

If you lose a son you can always get another, but there's only one Maltese Falcon. -- Sidney Greenstreet, "The Maltese Falcon"

~ようにする (~ you ni suru)

2004-03-15
~ようにする (~ you ni suru)
Basic meanings: see to it that ~, make sure that ~; make a point of ~; bring it about that ~; do ~ in such a way that ~
Comments: Someone causes some circumstantial or behavioral change to take place
Key sentence:

私は毎日運動するようにしている。
watasi wa mainiti undou suru you ni site iru.
I make sure to exercise everyday.

Formation: (plain imperfect verb) ようにする
Additional examples:
  1. 出来るだけ日本語を話すようにしている。
    dekiru dake nihongo o hanasu you ni site iru.
    I make a point of speaking Japanese as much as possible.
  2. 毎朝八時に来るようにして下さい。
    maiasa hatiji ni kuru you ni site kudasai.
    Please make sure to come in at 8:00 each morning.
  3. 分からないことは先生に聞くようにしている。
    wakaranai koto wa sensei ni kiku you ni site iru.
    I make sure to ask the teacher about anything I don't understand.
Usage notes:
  1. Similar to ようになる (you ni naru), there are two different ways to negate this kind of expression. See ようになる for more information.
  2. In general, ようにしている (you ni site iru) should be used when you make a point to do something (a habitual action). If ようにする (you ni suru) is used, it may have the meaning that you will do it, but you have not yet started. In that case, ~ことにした (~ koto ni sita) (= I've decided to ~) is probably more natural. ようにする might be used to if you want to strongly express that you will do something, as in response to pressure or questioning.
  3. Consider using a similar expression, ~ことにした (~ koto ni sita) (= I've decided ~) as in 毎日運動することにした (mainiti undou suru koto ni sita) (= I've decided to exercise every day.)

Comments

Thank you 2004-12-19 03:08AM
Thank you for taking the time to explain this complicated phrase in Japanese! <br>Arigatou gozaimashita.
an anonymous David Chester
thanks 2012-11-19 07:55PM
Excellent explanation!
an anonymous thankful
Thank you 2015-06-05 03:40AM
I was only able to understand this grammar through your post. I'm really thankful.
an anonymous grey-kun
RE: Thank you 2015-06-07 08:21PM
I'm glad it was helpful!
Excellent explanation 2015-07-29 08:04AM
Your explanations are great. You nail the point completely. I am wondering why you limited the website to only a few sentence patterns. Why not expand to hundreds of patterns that are there in Japanese.
an anonymous Sam
RE: Excellent explanation 2015-07-29 05:13PM
Thanks. I'm glad it was helpful. I didn't do more because each entry took many hours to prepare and at the time I was writing them my website had approximately zero readers, so there was little motivation to spend those hours...
Thanks!! 2015-12-28 07:18PM
Thank you!! You made that so easy to understand!
an anonymous Pixie
Thank you 2017-01-01 03:56PM
Thank you very much for your explanation, it helps a lot. In fact, it's very helpful as the explanation is really simple and it's quite like a person is casually and orally explaining to me. However, I wonder if this site contains other Japanese lessons because I can't find out how to search for them. Anyway, thank you very much again.
an anonymous Zineb
Thanks again 2017-01-01 04:11PM
Oh, I have just noticed that the lesson was actually written on 15/03/2014. Wow! It's just unbelievable!Today is the 01/01/2017, meaning 13 years later your lesson is still of a great help to learners of Japanese, and people should still thank you. So, thank you again :).
an anonymous zineb
Copyright 2020-04-06 12:47AM
Similar to dake de naku and bakari, again most content on this page are 1:1 copies from the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. Less example sentences than in the book, but all sentences shown on this page are exactly the same as sentence found in the book for this grammar point...
an anonymous SirEdgar

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