A2
なる — becoming
How なる expresses change in Japanese, the endings each adjective type takes before it, and why it is preferred to saying someone made something happen.
なる is become, and it takes the same endings as the adverbs: く for い-adjectives, に for な-adjectives and nouns.
寒くなりました。
Samuku narimashita.
It’s got cold.
静かになりました。
Shizuka ni narimashita.
It’s gone quiet.
医者になりたいです。
Isha ni naritai desu.
I want to be a doctor.
A noun takes に, like a な-adjective. 医者になる is become a doctor; there is no way to say it with です.
English hides the change
It’s got cold, it’s gone quiet, he’s grown up — English uses a different verb each time or none at all. Japanese uses なる throughout, so a great many sentences that look unrelated in English share one shape.
日本語が上手になりましたね。
Nihongo ga jōzu ni narimashita ne.
Your Japanese has got a lot better.
Preferred to saying who did it
Japanese leans towards describing a change as something that happened rather than something a person caused. する is available — 静かにする, make it quiet — but なる is the more natural choice in most situations, and the difference is one of politeness as much as of fact.
来月から社会人になります。
Raigetsu kara shakaijin ni narimasu.
I start work next month.
Even a decision entirely your own is often phrased as a state you are entering.
寒いなりました。
寒くなりました。
なる needs the adverbial form in front of it. 寒い becomes 寒く, exactly as it does before ない.