できる

Japanese

Etymology 1

Alternative spelling
出来る

/ideku/ → /deku/ → /dekuru/ → /dekiru/

Originally appears in the Man'yōshū of 759 CE and other Old Japanese texts as 出(い)で来(く) (ideku), as a compound of 出(い)で (ide, “going out”, the 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 出(い)づ (izu, ancient idu, ancient form of modern 出(で)る (deru, “to come out, to go out”))) + 来(く) (ku, “to come”, the ancient form of modern 来(く)る (kuru, “to come”)). The original meaning was “to come out”, extending in figurative contexts to a sense of “to appear, to become manifest”.

Phonologically, ideku shifted to deku by the mid-1400s in the Muromachi period, as the low-tone initial i dropped out, vaguely similar to the way that unstressed syllables in English may disappear. This deku then underwent a common shift in Muromachi Japanese to become dekuru, where all bigrade verbs and irregular verbs underwent a shift that included a -ru on the end of the plain form, in part through a fusion of the 連(れん)体(たい)形(けい) (rentaikei, “attributive form”) that has always ended in -ru for these verbs, and the 終(しゅう)止(し)形(けい) (shūshikei, “terminal form”) that is used at the end of sentences.

As a later part of this same shift, the central vowel shifted from -u- to -i- to produce dekiru, as the main vowel -i- for the 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) came to be used for all conjugated forms.

Over this same period, the meaning gradually shifted from “to come out” to include “to appear, to become manifest”, and from there “to come into existence anew”. This then extended further to “to occur, to happen; to be born; to be created, to be produced”, and thence “to come to fruition; to be completed, to be finished (with positive overtones)”. The underlying sense of latent existence gave rise to the meaning of “to be capable of making or producing something”, and then simply “to be able to do”.

In slang contexts in the early 1800s, dekiru came to mean “to have sex”, perhaps similar to the development of the English phrases “to do it, to get some, to get it on”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [de̞kʲiɾɯ̟]
• (Tokyo) できる [dèkíꜜrù] (Nakadaka – [2])

• Tokyo pitch accent of conjugated forms of 出来る

Plain	出来る	できる	[dèkíꜜrù]
Conjunctive	出来て	できて	[déꜜkìtè]
Perfective	出来た	できた	[déꜜkìtà]
Negative	出来ない	できない	[dèkíꜜnàì]
Negative perfective	出来なかった	できなかった	[dèkíꜜnàkàttà]
Hypothetical conditional	出来れば	できれば	[dèkíꜜrèbà]
Past conditional	出来たら	できたら	[déꜜkìtàrà]
Imperative	出来ろ 出来よ	できろ できよ	[dèkíꜜrò] [dèkíꜜyò]
Volitional	出来よう	できよー	[dèkíyóꜜò]
Desiderative	出来たい	できたい	[dèkítáꜜì]
Formal	出来ます	できます	[dèkímáꜜsù]
Formal negative	出来ません	できません	[dèkímáséꜜǹ]
Formal volitional	出来ましょう	できましょー	[dèkímáshóꜜò]
Formal perfective	出来ました	できました	[dèkímáꜜshìtà]
Continuative	出来 出来に	でき できに	[déꜜkì] [déꜜkì nì]
Negative continuative	出来ず 出来ずに	できず できずに	[dèkíꜜzù] [dèkíꜜzù nì]
Passive	出来られる	できられる	[dèkíráréꜜrù]
Causative	出来させる 出来さす	できさせる できさす	[dèkísáséꜜrù] [dèkísáꜜsù]
Potential	出来られる 出来れる	できられる できれる	[dèkíráréꜜrù] [dèkíréꜜrù]

Verb

できる • (dekiru) intransitive ichidan (stem でき (deki), past できた (dekita))

Japanese verb pair
active	でかす
mediopassive	できる

1. to be able to do

   ジョンさんはフランス語(ご)ができる。

   Jon-san wa Furansugo ga dekiru.

   John knows French.

   (literally, “John can do French.”)

2. to be finished, to be ready
   • 1949, 豊島与志雄, 或る作家の厄日:

     準(じゅん)備(び)は出(で)来(き)た。

     Junbi wa dekita.

     Preparations are finished. → I'm ready.

     よくできましたね。

     Yoku dekimashita ne.

     Well done.

3. be made
   • 1931, 宮本百合子, なぜソヴェト同盟に失業がないか？:

     都(と)会(かい)に工(こう)場(じょう)はドシドシ出(で)来(き)る。

     Tokai ni kōjō wa doshidoshi dekiru.

     Factories are being built all over the city.

4. (slang) to have sex, to do it, to get some, to get it on

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:性交する

   彼(かの)女(じょ)と出(で)来(き)たことは一(いち)度(ど)もない。

   Kanojo to dekita koto wa ichido mo nai.

   I haven't done it with my girlfriend even once.

Conjugation

Conjugation of "できる" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs)

Katsuyōkei ("stem forms")
Mizenkei ("imperfective")	でき	deki
Ren’yōkei ("continuative")	でき	deki
Shūshikei ("terminal")	できる	dekiru
Rentaikei ("attributive")	できる	dekiru
Kateikei ("hypothetical")	できれ	dekire
Meireikei ("imperative")	できよ¹ できろ²	dekiyo¹ dekiro²
Key constructions
Passive	できられる	dekirareru
Causative	できさせる できさす	dekisaseru dekisasu
Potential	できられる できれる³	dekirareru dekireru³
Volitional	できよう	dekiyō
Negative	できない できぬ できん	dekinai dekinu dekin
Negative continuative	できず	dekizu
Formal	できます	dekimasu
Perfective	できた	dekita
Conjunctive	できて	dekite
Hypothetical conditional	できれば	dekireba

¹ Written imperative
² Spoken imperative
³ Colloquial potential

Classical conjugation of "出来" (カ行変格活用, see Appendix:Japanese verbs.)

Stem forms
Irrealis (未然形)	出来	でこ	deko
Continuative (連用形)	出来	でき	deki
Terminal (終止形)	出来	でく	deku
Attributive (連体形)	出来る	でくる	dekuru
Realis (已然形)	出来れ	でくれ	dekure
Imperative (命令形)	出来 出来よ	でこ でこよ	deko dekoyo
Key constructions
Negative	出来ず	でこず	dekozu
Contrasting conjunction	出来れど	でくれど	dekuredo
Causal conjunction	出来れば	でくれば	dekureba
Conditional conjunction	出来ば	でこば	dekoba
Past tense (firsthand knowledge)	出来し[1] 出来し[1]	でこし できし	dekosi dekisi
Past tense (secondhand knowledge)	出来けり	できけり	dekikeri
Perfect tense (conscious action)	出来つ	できつ	dekitu
Perfect tense (natural event)	出来ぬ	できぬ	dekinu
Perfect-continuative tense	出来たり	できたり	dekitari
Volitional	出来む	でこむ	dekomu

^[1]Attributive form, as the terminal form (lemma) does not exist for this construction in this conjugation.

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of できる – see the following entry.

【出切る】 [verb] to exhaust, to have none left [verb] to exit completely, to emerge entirely

(This term, できる (dekiru), is the hiragana spelling of the above term.)

References

• Shōgaku Tosho (1988), 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
• Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN