Tsukeru and Tsuku: Attach, Turn On, Arrive, Notice

One pair, two directions

Picture something coming to rest on a surface and staying there. If a person puts it there, the verb is tsukeru and the thing takes o. If it simply ends up there, the verb is tsuku and the thing takes ga. A button on a shirt, ink on your hand, a stain on a sleeve, a name on a child, a price on a shelf, a habit on a person: Japanese treats all of these as contact that holds.

The verb classes differ, which matters when you conjugate under time pressure. Tsukeru is ichidan: tsukemasu, tsukenai, tsukete, tsuketa. Tsuku is godan: tsukimasu, tsukanai, tsuite, tsuita. The te-forms look similar in romaji, so listen for the difference between tsukete, from the transitive verb, and tsuite, from the intransitive one. Ki o tsukete and ki ga tsuite are a good pair to practise side by side.

Because these verbs are so general, they live inside fixed collocations, exactly like kakeru. Nobody chooses tsukeru from a list of meanings; they know that denki, nikki, namae and ki all take it. Learn each noun with its verb and the right one will arrive on time when you speak.

Japanese has many transitive and intransitive twins, and this family is unusually large. Learning them as pairs is efficient because the meaning barely changes; only the responsibility does. Practise by saying the action and then the resulting state: heya o katazukemashita, heya ga katazukimashita. That two-sentence habit trains the particle switch, which is the part that fails under pressure.

The sense table

Scan the fourth column rather than the second. What you need in speech is the whole sentence shape, including the particle, because the particle is what changes when you cross between the two halves of the pair.

Attaching, applying and dipping

This is the literal sense and the one that explains the rest. The thing being attached takes o and the place it lands on takes ni. Food gives you a useful contrast with kakeru from the previous sense group: you pour sauce over rice with kakeru, but you dip a piece of sashimi into a small dish with tsukeru. Ordering staff will use both, so hearing the difference is practical.

Turning things on

Anything with a switch or a flame takes tsukeru. This is one of the first collocations a learner needs in a shared house, an office or a hotel room, and it is almost always written in kana. The opposite is not a form of tsukeru: you switch things off with kesu, so denki o tsukemasu pairs with denki o keshimasu, and the pair is worth drilling together.

Watch the te-iru forms, because they carry different information. Denki o tsukete imasu describes a person in the act or in the habit of switching lights on. Denki ga tsuite imasu describes the state of the room, and it is what you actually say when you walk in and notice the light is on. Learners often use the transitive form for a state and sound as though someone is standing there operating the switch.

Recording, naming and pricing

A more abstract group, but the image still holds: you put a figure onto a page, a name onto a person, a price onto an item, a condition onto an agreement. Nikki o tsukeru is the standard way to say keep a diary, and kakeibo o tsukeru is the household budget book that many families keep. Do not use kaku here; kaku is the physical act of writing, while tsukeru is the ongoing habit of recording.

Tsuku: sticking, coming on and being included

The intransitive half reports states and results, which is why it fills so much of everyday conversation. Something got on your shirt, the light is on, a plan comes with breakfast, a habit has taken hold, your ability has grown. Notice that abstract growth uses tsuku rather than a verb of increase: chikara ga tsuku and jishin ga tsuku describe capacity settling onto you and staying.

The inclusion sense is worth learning before any trip. A hotel plan, a set meal or a phone contract all use tsuku to say what comes with it, and shop staff will ask or answer with it directly. Dorinku wa tsukimasu ka is a complete question, and the answer is often just tsukimasu or betsu ryōkin desu.

Arriving, and the seats and jobs that follow

Tsuku is the ordinary verb for arriving, written 着く, and it is far more common in speech than tōchaku suru, which belongs to announcements and timetables. The destination takes ni, and the conditional form tsuitara is one of the most useful sentences a traveller owns: tsuitara renraku shimasu, I will get in touch when I arrive.

Two neighbouring senses use different kanji for the same sound. Seki ni tsuku, written 着く, means to take your seat, and it is what a teacher or a host says before things begin. Shigoto ni tsuku, written 就く, means to take up a post, so it describes starting a career rather than going to the office on a given day. For the daily commute you would say kaisha ni ikimasu.

Ki o tsukeru and ki ga tsuku

These two sit at the centre of daily politeness and learners mix them constantly. Ki o tsukeru is transitive and forward-looking: you place your attention on something, so it means be careful. Ki ga tsuku is intransitive and backward-looking: attention lands on you, so it means notice or realise. What you are careful about takes ni, and so does what you notice, which is part of why they blur.

Kizuku is the contracted single verb that grew out of ki ga tsuku, and it now conjugates independently: kizukimasu, kizukanakatta, kizuite. Use it exactly where you would use ki ga tsuku, especially in writing. There is one difference to remember: you cannot break kizuku apart, so ki wa tsukimasen deshita is possible with the two-word version but kizuku stays whole.

Ki o tsukete on its own is a complete farewell, roughly take care, and it is what people say at the door when you leave. Reply with hai, arigatō gozaimasu. If you are the one staying behind at work, itterasshai does the same job.

The kanji, and the lookalike verbs

Three kanji divide the senses. 付 covers attaching, applying, adding and being included, and it is the one you meet on menus and plans as the suffix tsuki, as in chōshoku-tsuki, breakfast included. 着 covers arriving and taking a seat, and it is the same character as kiru, to wear, which fits the idea of something settling onto a body. 就 is narrow and formal: taking up a post or a position.

Two other verbs share the reading and are not related. 漬ける tsukeru means to soak or pickle, so yasai o tsukemasu is about making pickles rather than dipping. Uso o tsuku means to tell a lie and tameiki o tsuku means to sigh; both are the transitive godan verb usually written in kana. Context separates them easily, but the readings catch learners out in listening.

Compounds and set phrases you will hear

Tsuku sits inside a long list of compound verbs, and knowing the second half makes them readable. Omoitsuku is a thought arriving on you, oitsuku is catching up so that you are attached to the person ahead, ochitsuku is settling down, and chikazuku is drawing near. Mi ni tsukeru, to put onto your body, is the standard way to say acquire a skill, and mi ni tsuku is the same thing happening to you.

Two grammar points also grow from this verb. Ni tsuite means about or concerning, and it is the normal way to introduce a topic in a meeting or a class. Ni tsuki, more formal, means per, as in hitori ni tsuki, per person. Both are frozen forms, so you do not conjugate them, but recognising the origin helps you keep them apart from ni tsuite iru, which is the ordinary verb meaning is attached.

Mistakes to check in your own speech

• Use ni for a destination with tsuku: eki ni tsukimashita, not eki de tsukimashita.
• Report a state with the intransitive form: denki ga tsuite imasu, not denki o tsukete imasu, when you simply notice a light is on.
• Keep the te-forms apart: tsukete comes from tsukeru, tsuite comes from tsuku.
• Do not mix the two ki phrases: ki o tsukete kudasai warns someone, ki ga tsukimashita reports that you noticed.
• Switch things off with kesu, not with a negative of tsukeru: eakon o keshimasu.
• Pour over is kakeru, dip is tsukeru, and pickle is a third verb written 漬ける.
• Conjugate the classes correctly: tsukemasen and tsukenai for the ichidan verb, tsukimasen and tsukanai for the godan one.