やる気

Hello, I was wondering about how to use やる気.

I understand that in a sense it means 'motivation'. Some example sentences have やる気があります, as in 'there is motivation/morale'. I also heard やる気が出てきた and it was translated as, roughly, 'I'm motivated now'. These three things I'm wondering:

1) Common usages and using yaru ki to expand my range of expression,
2) If I can say 'have to get motivated' or 'want to get motivated' using yaru ki,
3) If it is acceptable to go negative and say やる気がない (no motivation?) or even, alluding to what I heard above, まだやる気が出てこない (I haven't been motivated yet).

Thank you so much. Through learning things like this I feel I'll be able to express myself even more. (My range of expression and what I want to say frustrates me at times. よく言いたいことがあまり言えません。）

Hi, ledojaeger:

If you're a native speaker of English, you can use "yaru ki" similarly to how you would use "feel like...," "bring oneself to do...," "be motivated to do...," "be interested in doing..."

To answer your question 1):
Most frequently, I see "yaru ki" coupled with "nai" or "denai." (see 3 below for some positive constructions)

Yaru ki ga denai (I don't feel like/not motivated to do [something])
Yaru ki ga nai (They/he/she don't seem to be interested in (willing/motivated) doing [something])

Here's a good example. My company took over a big chunk of work on a project from Company B at the client's insistence. Company B was still doing a lot of the project, which they had to coordinate with us. They were sloppy, slow to respond, complained, and did the bare minimum to not get completely fired. So...we used this construction quite a bit around the office after our interactions with them.

Co-worker (angry after talking to Company B on the phone): "Mou, mattaku yaru ki ga nai ne, ano kaisha."

To answer question 2)...I'm not a native speaker, but I don't think you'd use a construction with "yaru ki" to say you need to motivate yourself. Probably something more along the lines of "ki wo ireru," "ki wo mochinaosu," "ki wo hikishimeru," or maybe "kiai wo ireru." I'll defer to a native speaker here.

To answer question 3)...essentially the same as my answer to 1) above. I see "yaru ki" followed by nai/denai most frequently.

"Nanka, yaru ki ga denai." I can't get myself up for doing [something], don't feel like doing something, can't get motivated to [do something].

I have heard "yaru ki (ga) aru" as a positive expression, but not as often as the negative.

"Yaru ki aru ne, anata." You seem to be working hard/pretty excited about it.
"Yoshi, yaru ki ga waite kita" Ok, I'm back on track/ready to do this/pumped up.

And, of course, there's the old standard: "Yaru ki ka?!" (Wanna fight?! Bring it on!)

I would add here that if you're looking to expand your range of expression, look for constructions beyond "yaru ki ga aru/nai" by replacing "yaru" with other Base III (dictionary form) verbs.

1)
やる気がある
やる気がない
やる気が出る
やる気を出す
やる気を引き出す
やる気がそがれる
やる気をそぐ
やる気が上がる
やる気を上げる
やる気が下がる
やる気を下げる
やる気がアップする
やる気がダウンする
やる気が上昇する
やる気が低下する
やる気が失せる
やる気を失う
やる気が起きる/起こる
やる気を起こす
やる気を引き起こす
やる気を奮い起こす
やる気がする
やる気にする
やる気にさせる
やる気になる
やる気が伝わる
やる気を伝える
やる気が高まる
やる気を高める
やる気が奮い立つ
やる気を奮い立たせる
やる気が見える
やる気を見せる
やる気が感じられる
やる気を感じる
やる気を持つ
やる気を奪う
やる気がくじける
やる気をくじく
やる気が湧く
やる気を湧かせる/湧かす
やる気があふれる
やる気にあふれる
やる気が満ちあふれる
やる気に満ちあふれる
やる気がみなぎる
やる気が強い
やる気が弱い
やる気が高い
やる気が低い
やる気（が）満々（だ）
やる気（が）一杯（だ）
やる気（が）十分（だ）
やる気（が）ゼロ（だ）
etc., etc.,,,,

Most of these verbs/adjectives are associated with 気, not just やる気.
If you know an expression, for instance, やる気が上がる is valid, you can presume that the transitive pair やる気を上げる, the antonyms やる気が下がる/やる気を下げる, the expression for state(adjectives) やる気が高い/低い would be also valid. Then, you can check if these expressions are really used in the dictionary or by using google search.

2)
やる気を出さなければいけない and やる気を出したい, respectively

3)
As in the list above, yes.

ledojaeger said:

よく言いたいことがあまり言えません。

Click to expand...

You want to say "often" by よく and "not well" by あまり, right? I would say 言いたいことが上手く言えないことがよくあります。

ledojaeger said:

My range of expression and what I want to say frustrates me at times.

Click to expand...

I believe almost all non-native learners (not only Japanese learners, but foreign language learners in general) have the same feelings.

You both are extraordinarily helpful.

Butarox, thanks for the information on what you hear frequently and the nuances you've caught.
Toritoribe, thanks for the vocab and explanations.

Am I correct in inferring from butarox's example that 'yaru ki ga deru' refers to 'I' but 'yaru ki ga aru' is more of a 3rd person thing?

やる気がある refers to a state "being motivated".
e.g.
今はやる気がないんだから説得しようとしても無駄だよ。
Since I'm not motivated now, it's useless to try to persuade me.

Whereas やる気が出る (transitive やる気を出す) is an action/movement of mind "to get motivated (to change from a state "not being motivated" to another state "being motivated")".
e.g.
あいつは報酬がもらえないとやる気が出ない。
He can't get motivated without reward.