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I was talking to a person and they used:

大切にしたくなるよ。

Does that mean I have come to cherish or something like that?

macraf
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Baby Coder
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2 Answers2

19

Does that mean I have come to cherish or something like that?

Yes, that is precisely the idea!

Now, a grammar explanation...

「なる」 here means "to reach a certain (new) state" and you will keep encountering this usage of the word as long as you study Japanese. That is a promise from a native speaker.

「[連用形]{れんようけい} (continuative form) + なる」＝ "to become ~~", "to start doing ~~", etc.

「たく」 is the 連用形 of the subsidiary verb 「たい」("to want to"); therefore, 「～～したくなる」 means "to start wanting to ~~". (「し」 is the 連用形 of「する」)

「[赤]{あか}くなる」 = "to turn red". 「赤く」 is the 連用形 of 「赤い」.

「パリに[行]{い}きたくなった。」 = "I have started wanting to go to Paris."

  • But since you need the verb form to end in い, how do you use this is non-past verbs? I assume this is correct: りんごを食べたくなった (I started wanting to eat apples) りんごを食べなくなった (I started not eating apples) (So, from now on, I'm not eating apples anymore) My tries: (I started eating apples) (So, from now on, I'm eating apples) りんごを食べになった。 りんごを食べるのようになった Thanks! – kuonb Jan 19 '16 at 08:59
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    @kuonb You don’t need the verb form to end in い; you need it to be the continuative stem (連用形) of the verb in question. The continuative _often_ ends in い, but not always. Monograde verbs like 食べる have continuatives that end in whatever vowel the stem of the root itself ends in (for 食べる, that’s _-e_: 食べ). So the corresponding form with 食べる is simply 食べ+なる. Whether 「りんごを食べなった」 is something any Japanese speaker would ever say is an entirely different matter, to which I don’t know the answer. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Nov 26 '16 at 12:15
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Are you familiar with N + になる? (To become N). It's also done w/ verb forms & adjectives ending in い. The い becomes く then add なる.

For adjectives:
大きい -> 大きくなる (Big -> Become Big)
狭い -> 狭くなる

Similarly, this can be done w/ verbs
したい -> したくなる (want to do - > become to want to do)
行きたい -> 行きたくなる (Want to go -> become to want to go)

Obviously the above are literal translations. "Makes _ want to _" is usually better but needs context.

Hope that helps.

kiss-o-matic
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