～出す, ～切る, ～込む, ～直す in Japanese: V2 Aspect Suffixes (Sudden Onset, Completion, Inward/Depth, Redo)

In Japanese, ～出す, ～切る, ～込む, and ～直す are the four most productive non-phase V2 aspect suffixes. They attach to a V1 stem to mark sudden onset, exhaustive completion, inward depth, and redoing.¹² Treated together at JLPT N3, they help learners choose the right suffix from a meaning prompt instead of memorising compounds one by one.³⁴

Overview

Where these four sit in the compound-verb system

A Japanese compound verb (複合動詞) is built from a V1 in 連用形 (the masu-stem) followed by a fully conjugating V2. NINJAL's Compound Verb Lexicon catalogues over 2,700 such compounds in contemporary Japanese.¹

Among the non-phase aspectual V2s, ～出す (onset), ～切る (completion), ～込む (inward and depth), and ～直す (redo) are the four most-cited productive suffixes. They sit alongside the phase suffixes ～始める, ～終わる, and ～続ける, which are treated elsewhere on J-Compass.¹²

Kageyama divides V-V compounds into lexical and syntactic compounds. The test is whether V1 can be replaced by the pro-form そうする ("do so"). Syntactic compounds accept the replacement and combine with virtually any V1. Lexical compounds do not, and their V1 plus V2 combinations are heavily restricted.²⁵

～直す behaves as a syntactic compound. ～出す, ～切る, and ～込む each have a syntactic-aspectual reading and a lexical reading where V1 plus V2 is a frozen item (思い出す "remember", 取り出す "take out", 申し込む "apply for").²⁵

N3 as a union, not a single entry point

Bunpro indexes ～切る and ～込む at N3, and ～出す and ～直す at N4.³⁴⁶⁷ This page pins the four to N3 because the lexical-vs-aspectual contrast is an intermediate concept, but learners typically meet ～出す and ～直す earlier in fixed vocabulary before parsing them productively.

Why these four go on one page

Each of the four V2s has a transparent lexical base verb (出す "put out", 切る "cut", 込む "go in", 直す "fix or repair") that has been bleached into an aspectual reading in V2 position.²⁸

The practical payoff for learners is the lexical-vs-aspectual contrast. 取り出す ("take out", lexical) and 走り出す ("start running", aspectual) share the same V2 but belong to different compound classes. A learner who treats them as one construction will mis-parse new compounds.²⁸

Form: V-stem + 出す / 切る / 込む / 直す

The recipe in one line

Take V1's masu-stem (連用形), remove ます, and attach 出す, 切る, 込む, or 直す. Only V2 conjugates for tense, polarity, and politeness.³⁴⁶⁷

Worked construction across verb classes

The stem rules are the same as for any compound verb. The table shows the join for each verb class:

V1 class	V1 dictionary form	V1 stem (連用形)	Sample compound
五段 (Group 1)	書く kaku	書き kaki-	書き直す, 書き込む, 書き出す67
一段 (Group 2)	食べる taberu	食べ tabe-	食べ切る, 食べ直す37
不規則 (Group 3)	する suru	し shi-	し直す ("redo")7
不規則 (Group 3)	来る kuru	(limited)	only a small set of lexicalised forms1

やる ("do") combines with 直す as the high-frequency fixed form やり直す.⁷

Transitivity and verb-class compatibility

～切る attaches to direct, controllable actions (read, eat, use, run) and is judged unnatural with non-volitional verbs such as 死ぬ.³⁹

～直す attaches only to volitional, agentive verbs. The speaker has to be the agent of both the original act and the correction, so weather verbs and other unaccusatives are blocked (no *降り直す for rain re-starting on its own).⁷¹⁰

～出す and ～込む each have an intransitive-vs-transitive split that follows V1. Compare 飛び出す (intransitive, "leap out") with 取り出す (transitive, "take out"), and 飛び込む (intransitive, "leap in") with 詰め込む (transitive, "cram in"). The 出す / 出る and 込む / 入る V2 pairs participate in the broader transitive-intransitive pairing system of Japanese.¹¹⁸

NINJAL's lexicon documents roughly 255 V2-込む compounds, making 込む the single most productive V2 in the language.¹¹²

～出す: sudden onset and bringing-out

Reading 1: abrupt or unexpected start of an action

Attached to many V1s, ～出す denotes the sudden, often involuntary onset of the action V1 names. The subject is often not in conscious control. Bunpro notes that ～出す "quite often has the nuance of being unintentional, or something that the subject cannot avoid doing."⁶¹³⁸

雨あめが急きゅうに降ふり出だした。⁶
"It suddenly started raining."

あの子こは急きゅうに泣なき出だした。⁶
"That child suddenly burst into tears."

何なにも言いわないで走はしり出だした。⁶¹³
"Without saying a word, he broke into a run."

Reading 2: motion / emergence outward

When V1 names a manner of physical or verbal action and the situation involves bringing something out of an enclosed space, ～出す retains its lexical "out" meaning.²¹³⁸

ポケットからハンカチを取とり出だした。¹³
"He took a handkerchief out of his pocket."

子供こどもが道みちに飛とび出だした。¹³⁸
"A child leapt out into the road."

彼かれが最初さいしょにその案あんを言いい出だした。⁸
"He was the first to bring up that proposal."

～出す vs ～始める

～始める is the neutral phase-onset marker and can describe a conscious decision: 本を読み始める ("start reading a book") is a deliberate plan. ～出す encodes sudden, often involuntary onset with a "burst into" nuance. It reads oddly with a planned, conscious start.⁶¹³

～切る: doing something completely / to the end

Reading 1: finishing through to the end (exhaustive completion)

Attached to V1, ～切る asserts that the action covered the entire quantity or extent denoted by V1. It often implies that the resource or material is exhausted.³⁹¹⁴

昨日きのう買かった本ほんを1日にちで読よみ切きりました。⁹
"I finished reading the book I bought yesterday in a single day."

給料きゅうりょうを一日いちにちで使つかい切きってしまった。³⁹
"I used up my whole paycheck in a single day."

Reading 2: doing X decisively / definitively

With verbs of speech and decision, ～切る marks a definitive, modal completion: stating something without hedging, making up one's mind.³¹³

彼かれは犯人はんにんではないと言いい切きった。³¹³
"He stated flatly that he was not the culprit."

たとえどんなことがあっても勇者ゆうしゃさまを信しんじ切きります。³
"No matter what happens, I will trust the hero completely."

Reading 3: reaching an extreme degree (figurative "spent")

With stative or experiencer V1s (疲れる, 困る, 冷える), ～切る denotes that an extreme endpoint has been reached. It often appears in the ～切っている resultative.³¹³

今日きょうの寒さむさで体からだが冷ひえ切きってしまいました。³
"I'm chilled to the bone from today's cold."

彼かれは仕事しごとで疲つかれ切きっていた。¹³
"He was utterly worn out from work."

～切る vs ～てしまう

～切る asserts quantitative or extent completion: the whole thing got done. ～てしまう adds an aspectual and affective frame ("done it now," often regret or finality) on top of the action. By itself, it does not require quantitative completion.¹⁴¹³

The two can stack: 使い切ってしまった combines the quantitative completion of 使い切る with the affective completion of てしまう.³⁹

～切る also contrasts with ～尽くす, which foregrounds exhaustion or "nothing left" rather than accomplishment. 食べ切った means "finished eating the full quantity, with accomplishment," while 食べ尽くした means "ate every last bit because there was nothing more."¹⁴

Casual speech: ～切る can sound dramatic

～切る with stative V1s such as 疲れ切る or 困り切る is emphatic and reads as dramatic in conversation. For a neutral report on tiredness or trouble, the plain past or ～てしまう lands softer.¹³

～込む: inward motion and depth / persistence

Reading 1: motion into an enclosed space (spatial)

With verbs of motion or contact, ～込む marks a subject or object crossing a boundary into an enclosed space.⁴¹²⁸

彼かれはプールに飛とび込こんだ。⁴
"He leapt into the pool."

学生がくせいたちが教室きょうしつに駆かけ込こんできた。¹²⁸
"The students came rushing into the classroom."

Reading 2: putting / loading something in

With transitive V1s, ～込む marks loading or inserting an object into a container, a form, or a person.⁴¹²

ノートに答こたえを書かき込こんでください。⁴
"Please write your answers into the notebook."

鞄かばんに本ほんを詰つめ込こんだ。¹²
"I crammed books into the bag."

Reading 3: doing X deeply, intensely, or persistently (aspectual)

With verbs of cognition, posture, or speech, ～込む is bleached into an aspectual reading. It can signal immersion, persistence, or refusal to disengage.²¹²⁸

彼かれは椅子いすに座すわり込こんで動うごかなかった。¹²
"He sat down on the chair and refused to budge."

彼女かのじょは何時間なんじかんも考かんがえ込こんでいた。¹²⁸
"She was lost in thought for hours."

彼かれは自分じぶんのせいだと信しんじ込こんでいた。¹²
"He was firmly (and mistakenly) convinced it was his fault."

～込む vs ～入る

入る is the standalone "enter" verb. ～込む as V2 supplies the same "into" meaning but bundles V1's manner of motion: 飛ぶ becomes 飛び込む ("leap-in"), 押す becomes 押し込む ("push-in"), and 書く becomes 書き込む ("write-in"). 入る is highly restricted as V2 outside the fixed item 入り込む. By contrast, 込む is the single most productive V2 in Japanese, with roughly 255 attested compounds.¹¹²⁸

～直す: redoing and correcting

Reading 1: doing X again, redoing from the start

Attached to a volitional V1, ～直す marks redoing something because the original attempt was unsatisfactory. The second performance is intended to replace the first.⁷¹³

この文章ぶんしょうを書かき直なおした方ほうがいいよ。⁷
"You should rewrite this sentence."

はい！急いそいでやり直なおします。⁷
"Yes! I'll redo it right away."

お前まえって言いうな。言いい直なおしてください。⁷
"Don't call me 'omae.' Rephrase it, please."

Reading 2: doing X to fix or improve

With verbs of cognition or assessment, ～直す means reconsidering or reassessing. The second performance corrects the first, rather than merely repeating it.⁷¹³

この計画けいかくを考かんがえ直なおしたほうがいい。¹³
"We should reconsider this plan."

結果けっかを見み直なおしてみよう。¹³
"Let's review the results."

Why ～直す is restricted to volitional verbs

～直す requires the speaker to be the agent of both the original act and the correction. It does not attach to involuntary or unaccusative verbs. This is why rain re-starting on its own cannot use ～直す.⁷¹⁰

This restriction is the standard test for a syntactic-compound V2: ～直す passes the そうする replacement test and accepts virtually any agentive V1, identifying it as a syntactic compound in Kageyama's terms.²⁵

降り直す is ungrammatical

A learner reaching for "the rain started raining again" sometimes coins 雨が降り直した. The form is rejected because 降る (rain falling) is unaccusative and has no controlling agent who can re-perform it. The natural rendering uses the sudden-onset ～出す instead.

雨あめがまた降ふり出だした。⁶⁷
"It started raining again."

～直す vs the standalone 直す "to fix"

Standalone 直す is a transitive verb that takes a damaged or incorrect object: 車を直す ("fix the car"), 誤りを直す ("correct the error"). As V2, ～直す is a productive aspect-like suffix attached to a verb stem. It denotes redoing the action: 書き直す, やり直す.⁷¹³

The kanji is shared, but the grammar is not. The medical or healing sense uses a separate verb, 治す, with the same reading but a different kanji.⁷

Comparing the four at a glance

A meaning-to-suffix decision table

Meaning prompt	Suffix	Sample compound	Gloss	Reading class	JLPT
Start suddenly or involuntarily	～出す	降り出す, 走り出す, 泣き出す	rain begins; break into a run; burst into tears	aspectual onset613	N4 to N3
Bring outward or emerge	～出す	取り出す, 飛び出す, 言い出す	take out; leap out; bring up	lexical "out"138	N4 to N3
Finish through to the end	～切る	読み切る, 使い切る, 食べ切る	finish reading; use up; eat the whole thing	quantitative completion39	N3
State or decide definitively	～切る	言い切る, 思い切る	state flatly; make up one's mind	modal completion313	N3
Reach extreme degree	～切る	疲れ切る, 冷え切る, 困り切る	be utterly exhausted, chilled, or stumped	figurative extremity313	N3
Go into an enclosed space	～込む	飛び込む, 駆け込む, 押し込む	leap into; rush into; push into	spatial412	N3
Load or insert into	～込む	詰め込む, 書き込む, 申し込む	cram in; write in; apply for	transitive spatial / lexicalised412	N3
Do deeply or persistently	～込む	考え込む, 黙り込む, 座り込む	be lost in thought; fall silent; sit in protest	aspectual depth212	N3
Redo from the start	～直す	書き直す, やり直す, 言い直す	rewrite; redo; rephrase	syntactic redo713	N4 to N3
Reassess or improve	～直す	見直す, 考え直す, 立て直す	review; reconsider; rebuild	corrective redo713	N4 to N3

Common compounds worth memorising as units

A handful of high-frequency compounds appear as fixed vocabulary in N4 to N3 word lists before learners parse them productively. Memorising them as units can make the productive pattern easier to learn later.¹¹⁵

• ～出す lexicalised: 思い出す ("remember"), 取り出す ("take out"), 思い切って ("boldly", a frozen て-form of 思い切る).¹⁸
• ～切る lexicalised: 思い切る ("resolve" or "give up"), 締め切る ("close a deadline").¹
• ～込む lexicalised: 申し込む ("apply for"), 飲み込む ("swallow" or "grasp"), 落ち込む ("feel down").¹¹²
• ～直す lexicalised: 出直す ("come again" or "start over"), 立て直す ("restructure").¹⁷

Good to know

Reading 取り出す and 走り出す as the same construction

The two share the V2 ～出す but belong to different compound classes. 取り出す is the lexical "take out" reading and is a frozen item. 走り出す is the aspectual onset reading and is productive. A learner who treats them as one construction will mis-parse new compounds, expecting an onset reading where the lexical "out" reading is intended, or vice versa.²¹³⁸

The wrong parse maps 取り出す to "start taking." The correct parse is "take out (of a container)," with 出す contributing its literal directional meaning.

Using ～直す for non-volitional events

A learner who wants to say "it started raining again" sometimes coins 雨が降り直した. The form is ungrammatical because ～直す demands an agent who can re-perform the action. Weather verbs are unaccusative, so the natural form uses the sudden-onset ～出す.⁷¹⁰

雨あめがまた降ふり出だした。⁶⁷
"It started raining again."

Substituting ～切る for ～てしまう where the action is not quantitatively complete

～切る requires a quantifiable extent that was fully covered. An accidental, punctual event such as losing a key has no quantity to exhaust, so 鍵をなくし切った reads as ungrammatical for "I went and lost the key." The natural form uses ～てしまう. It carries the affective "done it now" frame without requiring quantitative completion.³¹⁴¹³

鍵かぎをなくしてしまった。¹⁴¹³
"I went and lost the key."

Reading 直す and 治す as the same V2

The two share the reading naosu but use different kanji and denote different events. 直す and ～直す cover correction and redoing. 治す covers medical curing and healing. 病気を直した misuses the "correct" kanji for an illness, so the correct form switches to 治す.⁷

病気びょうきを治なおした。⁷
"I cured the illness."

～切る emphasis in casual speech

～切る with stative V1s such as 疲れ切る or 困り切る is emphatic and reads as dramatic in conversation. The plain past (疲れた) or ～てしまう (疲れてしまった) is the neutral choice for a routine report on being tired.¹³

Each of the four V2s started as a fully lexical verb and grammaticalised

The aspectual readings descend from fully lexical source verbs: 出す ("put out") feeds onset; 切る ("cut") feeds completion; 込む ("go in") feeds depth and persistence; 直す ("repair") feeds redo. The lexical reading is still available in modern Japanese (取り出す "take out", 締め切る "close off", 飛び込む "leap into", 立て直す "rebuild"). This is why dictionaries list both readings under the same compound entry.²⁸

Mnemonic: out, cut, in, again

A one-word handle for each V2 keeps the aspectual reading tied to the kanji's source meaning. 出す: out of stillness (sudden start). 切る: cut the action off at completion. 込む: into depth. 直す: straighten the action by doing it over. Each link runs from the modern aspectual function back to the diachronic source verb.²⁸

See also

• Compound Verbs in Japanese (複合動詞): The V1-Stem + V2 Pattern
• ～始める, ～終わる, ～続ける in Japanese: Beginning, Ending, and Continuing an Action
• The Japanese Verb Stem (連用形): The Masu-Stem and Its Uses
• Transitivity Pairs in Japanese (自他動詞): Intransitive vs. Transitive
• The Te-Form in Japanese: Uses (Linking, Cause, Light Imperative, Continuation)

References

Footnotes

1. 国立国語研究所. 『複合動詞レキシコン (Compound Verb Lexicon)』, NINJAL, 2011. https://vvlexicon.ninjal.ac.jp/en/ DOI https://doi.org/10.15084/0002000261. Original director: Taro Kageyama; project lead: Kyoko Kanzaki. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

2. Kageyama, Taro. "Word Formation." In Tsujimura, Natsuko (ed.) The Handbook of Japanese Linguistics. Blackwell, 1999. (Chapter 10 reprint hosted by Blackwell Publishing.) https://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/content_store/WWW_Content/9780631234944/010.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

3. Bunpro. "切る (JLPT N3)." Grammar Library. https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/%E5%88%87%E3%82%8B ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

4. Bunpro. "込む ① (JLPT N3)." Grammar Library. https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/%E8%BE%BC%E3%82%801 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

5. Kageyama, Taro. "Japanese V-V Compounds and Their Typology." NINJAL International Symposium on Verb-Verb Complexes in Asian Languages, 2013. https://www2.ninjal.ac.jp/past-events/vvsympo/Kageyama_JapaneseV-V.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Bunpro. "だす (JLPT N4)." Grammar Library. https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/%E3%81%A0%E3%81%99 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

7. Bunpro. "なおす (JLPT N4)." Grammar Library. https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8A%E3%81%99 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³

8. Asghari, Mohammad Saeid. "Japanese Compound Verbs '〜dasu', '〜deru', '〜komu': Exploring Meaning and Illustrated Pedagogy for Japanese Learners." Journal of Language Teaching and Research, vol. 15, no. 5, 2024. https://jltr.academypublication.com/index.php/jltr/article/view/8617 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

9. Coto Japanese Academy. "JLPT N3 Grammar 〜切る (kiru): 'To Do Completely' in Japanese." https://cotoacademy.com/jlpt-n3-grammar-kiru-meaning-japanese-english/ (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

10. Matsumoto, Yo. Complex Predicates in Japanese: A Syntactic and Semantic Study of the Notion 'Word'. CSLI Publications / Kurosio, 1996. ↩ ↩² ↩³

11. Jacobsen, Wesley M. The Transitive Structure of Events in Japanese. Studies in Japanese Linguistics 1. Kurosio Publishers, 1992. ↩

12. Tofugu. "KOMU 込む Compound Verbs in Japanese (and How to Use Them)." https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/komu-compound-verbs/ (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

13. kwhazit, "Japanese Verb Auxiliaries." https://kwhazit.ucoz.net/ranma/g_vaux.html (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷

14. Takashionary. "Differences Between 切る (kiru) and 尽くす (tsukusu) as Suffix." https://takashionary.com/kiru-tsukusu/ (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

15. 国立国語研究所. 『現代日本語書き言葉均衡コーパス (BCCWJ)』 / NINJAL-LWP for BCCWJ. https://nlb.ninjal.ac.jp/ ↩