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Help with「~ことにする」 and 「~ことになる」

GaijinMiki

日本が好きな女の子
29 Jul 2014
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I learned about these a few months back, but I never really understood their purpose or meaning, so I just ended up avoiding them altogether. Since I figure I should understand them though, can anybody tell me what exactly they are?
I know 「~にする」 is like "I'll go with a ..." in English. Kind of like when you go to a restaurant and order food, you say "I'll go with a hamburger" or 「ハンバーガーにする」.
In that case, 「~ことにする」 is more for a verb. That means you can do something such as 「歩くことにする」, which would be "I'll go with walking," as if the speaker was given an option to walk or take the bus. Part of me says that can't be correct though. I feel like it would be better to say 「歩きにする」 or am I wrong?
Then there's 「~ことになる」. I was told you could use it in the same way as 「~ことにする」, but it means "...has been decided on." Again, I feel like this makes no sense.
So can anybody on here help me out? I am completely lost with these expressions, hence why I have been avoiding using them in my speech and writing. I also have never heard a Japanese person use these, so maybe they are useless? I have no idea. Any help would be so much appreciated.
 
歩くことにする and 歩きにする are both correct in that situation.

As for ~ことになる, the following thread might be helpful.
Koto and Mono
 
Thank you for the help.

If I am understanding the post correctly, then 「明日働くことになった」 is "It was decided that I will work tomorrow," right?
 
Right. "It has been decided that I will work tomorrow" is also possible.

する is volitional, so the speaker/subject decides it. Whereas なる is non-volitional, therefore ~ことになる/なった has a nuance that it's decided by someone else than the speaker/subject.

The bento seems too kawaii to eat, by the way.;-)
 
Ah, thank you so much!

So then...is it possible to say something like 「ことになった」 for "It's has been decided." I feel like you would use something else in that case since こと is a particle that requires a verb or noun before it.

And yes! 賛成です!I have no artistic skills in bento or onigiri though, so I just admire the work of others. 笑
 
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