膨れる

Japanese

Etymology

Kanji in this term
膨
ふく Grade: S
kun'yomi

Alternative spelling
脹れる

From Old Japanese 膨る (pukuru), following 下二段活用 (shimo nidan katsuyō, “lower bigrade conjugation”), from Proto-Japonic *pukoru.

Development

Natural progression from Old and Classical Japanese 下二段活用 (shimo nidan katsuyō, “lower bigrade conjugation”) verbs ending in -u to modern Japanese 下一段活用 (shimo ichidan katsuyō, “lower monograde conjugation”) verbs ending in -eru.

Compare 膨らむ (fukuramu, “to swell, to get bigger”), 膨らます (fukuramasu, “to make swell, to fill up”), and 袋 (fukuro, “bag”), from the way a bag is filled with items. However the comparison with fukuro would render void, as fukuro was reconstructed as *pukuro. Therefore, a root morpheme *puk- should be suggested, further making it possibly cognate with 吹く (fuku, “to blow”).

Outside Japonic, compare Proto-Tai *boːŋᴬ, modern Thai พอง (pɔɔng, “to swell”), and Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell”).

Even in Old Japanese, the pukur- root found in 膨れる and 膨らむ gets divided into two conjugations, one being 下二段活用 (shimo nidan katsuyō, “lower bigrade conjugation”) as 膨れる (fukureru), and 四段活用 (yodan katsuyō, “quadrigrade conjugation”), as 膨らむ (fukuramu), with it’s root stem pukur_a- + む (mu, auxiliary suffix).

First attested in the Man’yōshū, completed sometime after 759 CE.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) ふくれる [fùkúrérú] (Heiban – [0])
• IPA^(key): [ɸɯ̟kɯ̟ɾe̞ɾɯ̟]

• Tokyo pitch accent of conjugated forms of 「膨れる」

Source: Online Japanese Accent Dictionary
Stem forms
Terminal (終止形) Attributive (連体形)	膨れる	ふくれる	[fùkúrérú]
Imperative (命令形)	膨れろ	ふくれろ	[fùkúréró]
Key constructions
Passive	膨れられる	ふくれられる	[fùkúrérárérú]
Causative	膨れさせる	ふくれさせる	[fùkúrésásérú]
Potential	-	-	-
Volitional	膨れよう	ふくれよー	[fùkúréyóꜜò]
Negative	膨れない	ふくれない	[fùkúrénáí]
Negative perfective	膨れなかった	ふくれなかった	[fùkúrénáꜜkàttà]
Formal	膨れます	ふくれます	[fùkúrémáꜜsù]
Perfective	膨れた	ふくれた	[fùkúrétá]
Conjunctive	膨れて	ふくれて	[fùkúrété]
Hypothetical conditional	膨れれば	ふくれれば	[fùkúréréꜜbà]

Verb

膨(ふく)れる • (fukureru) intransitive ichidan (stem 膨(ふく)れ (fukure), past 膨(ふく)れた (fukureta))

1. to swell, to expand

Usage notes

膨れる (fukureru) is used to describe something that happens due to an abnormality or external force, not necessarily with a positive sense.

• パンが膨(ふく)れる、躯(むくろ)が膨(ふく)れる、頬(ほお)が膨(ふく)れる

  pan ga fukureru, mukuro ga fukureru, hō ga fukureru

  the bread rises, the corpse bloats, one's cheeks puff up (→ one pouts or sulks)

Its synonym, the intransitive verb 膨らむ (fukuramu) is used to describe something that happens naturally of its own accord, generally with a positive sense.

• 蕾(つぼみ)が膨(ふく)らむ、夢(ゆめ)が膨(ふく)らむ、胸(むね)が〔幸(しあわ)せなどで〕膨(ふく)らむ

  tsubomi ga fukuramu, yume ga fukuramu, mune ga 〔shiawase nado de〕 fukuramu

  the buds swell, one's dreams grow bigger, one's chest swells [with joy, etc.]

Conjugation

Conjugation of "膨れる" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs.)

Katsuyōkei ("stem forms")
Mizenkei ("imperfective")	膨れ	ふくれ	fukure
Ren’yōkei ("continuative")	膨れ	ふくれ	fukure
Shūshikei ("terminal")	膨れる	ふくれる	fukureru
Rentaikei ("attributive")	膨れる	ふくれる	fukureru
Kateikei ("hypothetical")	膨れれ	ふくれれ	fukurere
Meireikei ("imperative")	膨れよ¹ 膨れろ²	ふくれよ¹ ふくれろ²	fukureyo¹ fukurero²
Key constructions
Passive	膨れられる	ふくれられる	fukurerareru
Causative	膨れさせる 膨れさす	ふくれさせる ふくれさす	fukuresaseru fukuresasu
Potential	膨れられる 膨れれる³	ふくれられる ふくれれる³	fukurerareru fukurereru³
Volitional	膨れよう	ふくれよう	fukureyō
Negative	膨れない 膨れぬ 膨れん	ふくれない ふくれぬ ふくれん	fukurenai fukurenu fukuren
Negative continuative	膨れず	ふくれず	fukurezu
Formal	膨れます	ふくれます	fukuremasu
Perfective	膨れた	ふくれた	fukureta
Conjunctive	膨れて	ふくれて	fukurete
Hypothetical conditional	膨れれば	ふくれれば	fukurereba
¹ Written imperative ² Spoken imperative ³ Colloquial potential