Lesson 38: なる and でできる, bonus causative せる, and reviewing the passive
Japanese has phrasal verbs, just like english. Phrasal verbs are basically verb-based phrases that have their own definitions, like "turn into". なる is a verb meaning something like "become" or "ending up being". In addition to just "become", it can be used for all sorts of indirect states, like a team ending up being its members, or a rumor turning out to be true.
俺、ツインテールになります I will become twintails.
Despite being described as になる, it actually takes an adverb as the argument of なる, not just nouns marked with に. に basically acts as an adverbial marker for nouns. The phrase we're looking at here is <adverb>なる, like のためになる.
The く form of い-adjectives is adverbial. Compare くなる to くない:
強くなれば If I become strong
強くなければ If I am not strong
Note that ければ on i-adjectives can be spoken as けりゃ or きゃ: 強くなきゃ.
When になります is being used in the particular type of polite speech used by service job workers, it has a nuance based on になる, but doesn't literally mean the same thing. Blame keigo.
出来る できる is a verb about being "made", complete, or even "made out of". It also replaces the missing potential form of する.
The phrase でできる means "be made out of":
この体は、無限の剣で出来ていた。
This body was made out of infinite swords.
でできる usually, but not always, takes the form でできている when used like this. Also, できる doesn't require the で before it for it to talk about being made out of something, just like なる and becoming.
せる is a "causative" verb form. It means the action of making or letting someone do something. Yes, it's used for both, and that's why it has a vague name like causative.
For five-form verbs, せる attaches to the "none such" form. For one-form verbs, さ is inserted between せる and the verb's one and only base.
終わらせる・死なせる・食べさせる To make/let someone/something end/die/eat
Causation is the logical opposite of a passive. The relationship between the subject and verb changes in the opposite direction. When you use the passive and causative together, your subject is the one doing the core action again, but because of the causative and passive, the meaning is no longer the same.
書かせる To make ___ write (not the one doing the writing)
書かれる To be written (not the one doing the writing)
書かせられる To be made to write (the one doing the writing)
Reality check: a short form of the causative verb exists in the spoken language, and isn't considered wrong there. Replace せる with す. Supposedly, this doesn't apply to one-form verbs or す verbs, but don't hold your breath.
書かす
Causative-passive still applies, as if the す were a five-form verb ending.
書かされる