-ification
-ization
to make something
to change
to become
transform into
Structure
- Suffix
- Noun + 化 + ( する )
- Noun1 + 化 + する / した / の + Noun2
[A suffix creating する verb that indicates an act, process of making something, or transformation]
[In very formal writing like in titles of articles, in books or a thesis it can be seen in kanji compounds without の: プラスチック液化法及びその応用 ( Plastic Liquefaction Methods and Practical Use )]
I fail to see, when I have to add する after か and when it can be omitted.
Is it dependent to what comes after ? Like a verb, noun etc ?
I’m looking at this sentence, and I’m really not sure why this one is 化 instead of 化する?
20世紀には経済成長の原因の一つは自動化だと感がられている。
The only thing that I can think of is that in this particular case, 自動化 may be a commonly accepted adverb?
原因の一つは自動化だ - one of the causes is automation
原因の一つは自動化する - one of the causes is automating itself (nonsense, and the following だ would be ungrammatical)
I have a question about a hint I’m getting in the picture below.
But telling me that the word before is a noun doesn’t seem to matter at all because the structure given only gives information for nouns. Or is it telling me it’s an adjective I really don’t know I look it up and it says it gets used as both, maybe the hint could TELL me which one it is in this sentence. And if it’s an adj how does that tell me anything?
Am I not getting what the hint is trying to tell me or what’s going on?
How am I supposed to use this hint to learn when to add する and when to not add it?
I just wanted to comment that this grammar point has got to be one of the hardest ones to really understand (as an English native speaker).
I know it’s bad practice to try to translate things word-for-word, but I can’t wrap my head around this grammar point.
Isn’t it pretty similar to how it works in English though. E.g. we can take the noun “simple” and the suffix “-ify” (originally from a Latin word for “make”) and make a new verb “simplify” that means “make simple” or “change something so it becomes simple”. And we can also take this verb and the suffix “-ation” (for a “process”) to make a corresponding noun “simplification” that means “the process of making something simple”.
In the same way we can take the noun 簡単 (simple) and make a new verb 簡単化 する (simplify), and the matching noun 簡単化 (simplification).
I guess a word-for-word translation is difficult because English has a bunch of ways to do this, and they’re not exchangeable, and generally rooted in Latin or Old French and no longer recognisable as individual words, and sometimes the same suffix can have multiple roots, and sometimes people don’t agree whether two words are the same, or different meanings, or one is just misspelled (like liquefaction vs. liquification)…
E.g. we can take the noun “simple” and the suffix “-ify” (originally from a Latin word for “make”) and make a new verb “simplify” that means “make simple” or “change something so it becomes simple”.
Oooh, I like this explanation! Cheers!
This is a question for the grammer point かする, but may I ask how かする can be changed to かされ?
And why the transform is necessary? (I have tried and かする is not an alternate naswer)
It’s in N4 but the sentences are hella complicated. Not even a single easier one. Gimme a break 
Sorry, I see it’s been ages since your question.
Looks like they need you to input する in the passive form, which is される (is done). And combine it with another grammar point N4 Lesson 2: 6/17 始める.
If this is indeed true, then the upshot is that the explanation of this grammar point is very bad and should be re-written. The only example of using 化 on its own as a suffix is accompanied by this:
However, in formal/scientific writing, the する (and の) may sometimes be dropped.
日本では高齢化が進んでいる。
In Japan, the population is aging progressively.
Is there a way we can flag this discussion for the editorial team? I don’t know if it’s cool to @ just anyone.
You can at the people with a bunpro logo in their icon, they usually aren’t offended by customers asking questions about their product!
In the sentence you quoted maybe a translation along the lines of “the aging of the population is progressing” would make it easier to map the parts?
But this grammar point tends to produce weird translations if they’re too literal. For example, the 高齢化 has a companion, the 少子化 (small-number-of-children-ification of a society) and they’re often grouped together as 少子高齢化 too. In English we’d probably have to split that up again to make sense.
If you want more examples, another one that tends to come up in JLPT questions is 地球温暖化 (global warming). Or look at chemicals, those can be kind of easy to map to English. E.g. 酸素 is oxygen and 酸化 is oxidation. So something like carbon dioxide becomes 二酸化炭素 (~twice oxidized carbon), etc. Maybe a bit above N4 now that I think about it.
Yeah I guess I’ll just @Asher because I’m familiar with him from the book club threads, I’m just not sure if this is his area of responsibility.
Oh, it wasn’t difficult to recognize the more literal translation from what was written in the example (especially following your explanation). Actually, one of my favorite things from my studies is coming to appreciate how translating Japanese to English often requires significant structural changes. (One of the first times I got that was watching an anime subtitled in English and seeing the text “You forgot this” while the character said 「忘れ物だ」.)
But right now I’m just focusing on how the content of that grammar point here on BunPro does not explain at all how 化 and 化する are different, and in fact, states outright that omitting する is purely a stylistic matter for formal/scientific writing.
Thanks for the examples, and I love that I already learned 地球温暖化 by reading volume one of よつばと！
