N4 grammar

〜ことになる

kotoninaru

It has been decided

Formation

ことになる says an arrangement has come about, without pointing at who arranged it. Japanese reaches for it constantly, even where the speaker plainly did decide, because it sounds less self-important. Treat it as the polite way to report an outcome.

Examples

〜ことになる is marked in each sentence. Tap any word for its dictionary entry.

  1. I will be seeing her again one of these days.

  2. We are to meet at the station at nine.

  3. You'll get into trouble if your parents find out.

  4. I should be back home the next day.

  5. I am supposed to babysit the children tonight.

The explanation is ours, written for this site. Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR), each machine-checked to actually contain the pattern. Furigana is generated automatically, so a rare reading may be imperfect.