Deru and Dasu: Leaving, Attending, Submitting, Starting

One event, two verbs

Japanese often gives you a pair of verbs for the same event: one describes what happens, the other describes what a person does to make it happen. Deru and dasu are the clearest example. A fever appears, netsu ga deru, and a person runs one, netsu o dasu. Tea arrives at the table, ocha ga deru, because someone served it, ocha o dashita. Learning the pair together halves the work, because one collocation teaches you two sentences.

The grammar follows the pairing. Deru is intransitive and its subject is marked with ga, while dasu is transitive and takes a direct object marked with o. Deru is an ichidan verb, so the stem is de and you get demasu, dete, deta and the potential derareru. Dasu is godan, so you get dashimasu, dashite, dashita and the potential daseru. The two te-forms, dete and dashite, cover most spoken use.

The senses of deru at a glance

Deru starts from a physical picture: something moves from inside to outside. Every other sense is a step away from that picture. You leave a building, so you leave home. You appear at a place, so you attend a meeting or appear on television. Something emerges from a process, so a result comes out and a new product is released. Keep the image of moving outward and the list below reads as one verb rather than nine.

Leaving, departing and getting going

This is the sense you will use every morning. The place you leave takes o, which surprises learners because deru is intransitive: ie o demasu, kaisha o demasu, heya o demasu. Where you come out to takes ni, so soto ni deru means step outside. Note that deru is not the verb for getting off a train. That is oriru: densha o orimasu. Deru is the train departing, or you leaving the building.

Attending, appearing and answering the phone

When deru means take part in or appear at, the event is marked with ni: kaigi ni deru, jugyō ni deru, shiai ni deru, pātī ni deru. The same pattern gives you denwa ni deru, to pick up the phone, which is one of the highest-value phrases for anyone working in Japan. The polite way to say you cannot attend is a soft negative with a reason: mōshiwake arimasen ga, ashita no kaigi ni wa deraremasen.

A natural reply when you say you will attend is a simple confirmation: wakarimashita, ja, ashita onegaishimasu. If you say you cannot, expect kashikomarimashita or daijōbu desu yo, then a question about a substitute, dare ka kawari ni deraremasu ka.

Things that come out by themselves

A large group of deru sentences has no agent at all. Symptoms come out of the body, feelings come out of a person, and results come out of a process. English usually needs a different verb for each of these, which is why they are worth drilling as a set. Notice that koe ga demasen is the normal way to say you have lost your voice, and oyu ga demasen is what you tell the front desk when the shower runs cold.

The senses of dasu at a glance

Dasu keeps the same outward image, but now a person causes it. You move something from inside to outside, from private to public, or from potential to actual. That covers posting a letter, taking the rubbish out, submitting a form, serving a dish, opening a shop, spending money, producing a result and picking up speed. The object is always marked with o, and the te-form dashite links smoothly into a second clause: koe o dashite yonde kudasai.

Sending, submitting and serving

In offices and city halls, dasu is the standard verb for handing something in, and it works for paper and for files. The polite request is dashite kudasai, and the humble form when you serve or hand something to a superior is odashi shimasu. Note the deadline pattern: made ni for a deadline, made for a duration. Kin-yōbi made ni dashite kudasai means submit it by Friday, not until Friday.

Expect short confirmations in reply: hai, tashika ni uketorimashita, or kochira ni dashite kudasai when someone points to a tray. If you are late, the natural apology is okurete sumimasen, ima kara dashimasu.

Producing, spending and starting something

The more abstract uses of dasu are common at work. Kekka o dasu is what a manager asks for, shiji o dasu is issuing instructions, and okane o dasu is paying or contributing. Two set phrases are worth memorising as whole units. Genki o dashite is the standard cheer up, and koe o dashite is read it aloud, which you will hear in every classroom and in pronunciation practice.

The suffix ~dasu: an action begins suddenly

Attach dasu to the masu-stem of another verb and you get a new verb meaning that action suddenly started. Naku becomes naki plus dasu, nakidasu, to burst into tears. Furu becomes furidasu, for rain that starts unexpectedly. Ugoku becomes ugokidasu, for a train that begins to move. The compound conjugates as a godan verb in su, so you say nakidashimashita and furidashite.

The contrast to learn is ~hajimeru. Ame ga furihajimemashita simply reports that the rain started. Ame ga furidashimashita adds suddenness and often inconvenience, which is why it is the version people actually say when they are caught without an umbrella. Because ~dasu implies the event was not planned, it sounds odd in invitations and commands, so you say hanashihajimemashō rather than hanashidashimashō.

Notice that the last four have drifted away from the sudden-beginning meaning and are simply lexical verbs now. Omoidasu is the everyday word for remember, and hikidasu is what you do at a cash machine. Learn those four as vocabulary, and keep the sudden-beginning rule for the productive cases at the top of the list.

Compounds and set phrases built on deru

Deru also forms compounds, though fewer than dasu. Dekakeru is to go out for a while, deau is to run into or encounter, demukaeru is to go and meet an arriving guest, and denaosu is to come back another time, a very useful phrase when a shop is closed or the person you wanted is out. In business Japanese, the noun forms shusseki and gaishutsu carry the same idea in a stiffer register.

Mistakes to fix while you speak

• Do not say densha o demasu for getting off a train; the verb is oriru, densha o orimasu.
• Attend takes ni, not o: kaigi ni demasu, never kaigi o demasu.
• Keep the pair straight in the past tense: netsu ga demashita is what happened to you, netsu o dashimashita is what you did.
• Use dashite kudasai for handing something in, and okuru or dasu with a courier for parcels; teishutsu suru is the written register.
• Avoid ~dasu in invitations and commands; switch to ~hajimeru when the start is planned.
• Say the deadline with made ni, not made, when the verb is dasu.