Monday 12 October 2015

grammar - How do ことになる and ようになる differ? (When ことになる cannot = "It has been decided that")


I understand that ことになる has the meaning "It has been decided that" and can be used to point to a ritual or habit of a society like taking off your shoes.


However, I don't get what it means when it is like this: あすで1週間雨が降りつづくことになる。


How is that different from say, あすで1週間雨が降りつづくようになる。


Thankyou :)



Answer



First, I must say that "it has been decided that ~~" is a highly overrated translation of 「~~ことになる」 among J-learners. Truth is that that is not what it means even half the time.


「あすで1週間雨{しゅうかんあめ}が降{ふ}りつづくことになる。」 means "It will have ended up raining a whole week." It has already been raining for 6 straight days now and the weather forecast says that it will rain again tomorrow.


A more natural way to say this would be 「もし明日{あす}も雨だったら、(これで)一週間雨が降り続{つづ}いたことになる。」 but virtually all native speakers would understand 「あすで1週間雨が降りつづくことになる。」.


Here, 「ことになる」 means "to end up (in a certain way)" and that is already a very common usage of the expression.



Your second sentence 「あすで1週間雨が降りつづくようになる。」, however, makes little sense, I am afraid.


「ことになる」 refers to (and focuses on) the final result whether it happened naturally or someone made it happen on purpose.


「ようになる」 focuses on the change from one situation to another. "It was like A before but it is like B now." e.g. 「去年{きょねん}までは泳{およ}げなかったが、今年{ことし}からは泳げるようになった。」 In this example sentence, you cannot replace the 「ようになった」part with a 「ことになった」.



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