Suru and Shimasu – Complete Guide – Creating verbs in Japanese

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One of the most important verbs in the Japanese language is called suru [する], which means to do, to perform, or to cause. It is often used to turn any noun into a verb, in addition to being one of the most important elements of the Japanese language.

This raises many questions: are there rules for turning words into verbs with suru? Can suru be used followed by a verb? In this complete guide, we will answer these and other questions about suru in the Japanese language.

Since the article is huge, I will leave an index below to help you navigate through the article without getting lost:

Conjugations of the verb Suru and Shimasu

Suru [する] is an irregular verb that means “to do” and in its polite (formal) form becomes shimasu [します] and can be conjugated in the following ways:

Responsive Table: Scroll the table sideways with your finger >>

Dictionary	する	suru
Formal	します	shimasu
Informal Past	した	shita
Formal Past	しました	shimashita
Informal Negative	しない	shinai
Formal Negative	しません	shimasen
Informal Past Negative	しなかった	shinakatta
Formal Past Negative	しませんでした	shimasendeshita
TE Form – て	して	shite
Conditional	すれば	sureba
Volitional	しよう	shiyou
Passive	される	sareru
Causative	させる	saseru
Potential	できる	dekiru
Imperative	しろ	shiro

Although it is mostly written in hiragana, suru has a kanji [為る] that means to do, to change, to ensure, to benefit, to be useful, to achieve, to try, to practice, to serve as, result, and advantage.

Different ways to use the verb suru

The verb する is one of the most used verbs in the Japanese language. One of its main functions is precisely to turn words into verbs. For example, the word for marriage “kekkon” [結婚] becomes to marry “kekkonsuru” [結婚する].

In addition to turning words into verbs and meaning to do, the verb suru ends up having various other meanings depending on how it is used. There are numerous uses that we will list below:

1) You can use [する] after an adjective-i [い] in its adverbial form to say that you are doing something, for example:

The adjective for [big] ooki [大き] becomes an adverb by adding ku [く]. 
ookiku [大きく] means to increase. 
ookikusuru [大きくする] means I am increasing (for example, the volume of the phone).

If it is a na-adjective [な], you simply replace the na [な] with ni [に].

2) You can use the verb [する] to choose an option. When you are in a restaurant, you can say koohi ni shimasu [コーヒーにします], which means “I will have coffee“.

3) The verb する can be used to talk about the duration of time (lapse) in subordinate clauses and also about costs and values. For example: kore wa ichimanen shimashita [これは一万円しました], which means “this cost 10,000 yen.” 4) When used with phrases related to appearance, it can mean to appear.

4) The expression nisuru [にする] is used to indicate a change that happened due to someone or something. Unlike [なる], which indicates that something was transformed or changed by itself.

5) When used with words that emit senses like smell, sound, and taste, suru can convey the idea of the sense. For example, the phrase ii nioi ga suru [いい匂いがする], which means “it smells good“. The same happens with words related to appearances.

E) Some compound verbs する made up of only one kanji can be written without the [る]. An example is the verb aisuru [愛する], which can be written as aisu [愛す], or the verb tassuru [達する], which can be written as tassu [達す].

A する verb can be transitive or intransitive depending on the context and usage.

Can any noun become a verb with suru [する]?

There is a class of nouns called “verbal nouns“, where most are words of Chinese origin written in kanji or foreign words written in katakana. In fact, even Japanese onomatopoeias can become verbs [する].

Practically any noun can be transformed into a verb using suru [する]; there are no rules regarding this, but you need to have knowledge and common sense for your conversation to make sense.

Suru [する] literally means to do, so it doesn’t matter which noun you use; the listener will understand that you want to make an action out of that noun. However, there are words that are already verbal, so you won’t say utasuru [歌する] if there is already utau [歌う].

Most of the time, nouns that do not have a verbal version are written with two or more ideograms. If you use suru [する] or shite [して] on a word that doesn’t make sense, you will be saying that you want to do that.

Even if you take a word of Chinese or foreign origin, you need to check if there is already a Japanese verb ending in [う] that is more popular and known. Don’t just start turning any word into a verb, even if that is possible.

The potential form of the suru verbs is formed by adding dekiru in place of suru (I am capable of doing)! 

List of popular suru verbs

Now that you know that most Japanese words can become a kind of suru verb, let’s list below the most popular verbs in this category. Words that probably do not have verb [う] alternatives.

One way to know if the verb you are creating exists in Japanese is to write it on jisho.org!

Responsive Table: Scroll the table sideways with your finger >>

Portuguese	Japanese	Romaji
to study	勉強する	enkyousuru
to scare, to surprise	びっくりする	bikkurisuru
to knock	ノックする	nokkusuru
to kiss	キスする	kisusuru
to compare, to contrast	比較する	hikakusuru
to drive	ドライブする	doraibusuru
to type	タイプする	taipusuru
to explain	説明する	setsumeisuru
to ask questions	質問する	shitsumonsuru
to have a meal	食事する	shokujisuru
to go shopping	買い物する	kaimonosuru
to wash	洗濯する	sentakusuru
to clean	掃除する	soujisuru
to oppose	反対する	hantaisuru
to take a walk	散歩する	sanposuru
to prepare	準備する	junbisuru
to promise	約束する	yakusokusuru
to reserve	予約する	yokakusuru
to reserve, to make a ceremony	えんりょする	enryosuru
to get married	結婚する	kekkonsuru
to request, to place an order	ちゅうもんする	chumonsuru
to call	電話する	denwasuru
to travel	旅行する	ryokousuru

See a list of more verbs or words that are transformed when using suru or shimasu:

Onomatopoeias + Suru

• yukkuri suru [ゆっくりする] – to take a long time;
• katto suru [かっとする] – to ignite, to set on fire;
• zotto suru [ぞっとする] – to shiver, to scare;
• bonyari suru [ぼんやりする] – to be distracted;
• niko niko suru [ニコニコする] – to smile;
• waku waku suru [ワクワクする] – to be excited, thrilled;

English Words + Suru

• doraibu suru [ドライブする] – to drive;
• taipu suru [タイプする] – to type;
• kisu suru [キスする] – to kiss;
• nokku suru [ノックする] – to knock;
• pasu suru [パスする] – to pass;
• hitto suru [ヒットする] – to hit;

I hope you enjoyed this article about the verbs suru and shimasu, and that you understood the creation of verbs and their function. If you liked the article, share it with your friends; any suggestions, additions, or questions, leave them in the comments.