Hey,

I was just doing core deck reviews and stumbled about these: 空く[あく], 空く[すく], 開く[あく], 開く[ひらく]?! What's the difference between the first "aku" and "suku" and the third and forth?! I'm confused...

It's helpful to use a kokugo dictionary for these kinds of things:

あく
すく
ひらく
Even if you need to use rikaichan, kokugo dictionaries are useful, and I found them indispensable long before I could read them without rikaichan...

The Kenkyusha New College Japanese-English Intermediate Dictionary found here is also useful if you really want an English definition, but kokugo dictionaries are usually more detailed.

あく can only be used as an intransitive verb:
扉があく（○）
扉をあく（×）

As a side note, if you want to use あく as a transitive verb, you can change it to あける:
扉があける（×）
扉をあける（○）

ひらく can be used either intransitively or transitively:
扉がひらく（○）
扉をひらく（○）

the kanji for あく or ひらく, if they were to have them, would almost always be 開く (in my experience). すく (空く) is often seen in the phrase 「おなかすいた」 ("I'm hungry" / my stomach is empty). すく means "is empty". I think people purposely put verbs in kana sometimes because the kanji would be vague, but if you see 開く, which one it is is something you have to judge from context.

Often, if you see lists of words that in related in some way (with the same english translation, same kanji, etc.) it can be confusing how they are distinguished. When you see them in context though, each one has a distinct meaning.

空く（あく） means to be open or free, like 席が空いている or 部屋が空いている.

these words are pretty common. you don't have to kill yourself with boredom to leaarn (manually memorize and all that).
just watch some fun japanese show/anime/dram/amovie/something or go through song lyrics.

yudantaiteki Wrote:空く（あく） means to be open or free, like 席が空いている or 部屋が空いている.

その次の週は空いてますか。 Isn't it? (for "aku" to be free)

That's another use of 空く, yes.

In Star Driver, they say 開け！電気柩！ once an episode. This one is ひらけ
Video Link. It is at 16:20 in the linked video.

In Fairy Tail, Lucy says 開け！~の扉！~! ~ depends on who she summons. This one is also ひらけ
Video Link. It's at 0:20 in the linked video.

In the song, Cross Over by 9Nine, one of the lines goes like this:　(This one is あけて)
Love in your eyes　扉開けて　君がいる場所まで
焦がし続けてきた想い　伝えたい
Link to youtube vide of the song The line is at 1:14 in the linked video.
Offtopic: Can someone tell me how to link to a specific time in a youtube video?

The others are rarer, because I can't name an example off the top of my head for them. Maybe just put おなかすいた (in kanji) in your deck. I can think of absolutely no examples for 開く あく

あのドアが開いている

yudantaiteki Wrote:あのドアが開いている

I assume this is a "aku" one, too or am I mistaken? Could you also say: あの男はドアが開いてる。?

jcdietz03 Wrote:I can think of absolutely no examples for 開く あく

yudantaiteki Wrote:あのドアが開いている

Tori-kun Wrote:I assume this is a "aku" one, too or am I mistaken?

Yes, it is aku.

Tori-kun Wrote:Could you also say: あの男はドアが開いてる。?

A clause formed like [N1]は[N2]が describes an attribute N2 of an object N1.
For example, 象は鼻が長い。 An elephant has a long trunk.
Since I'm assuming the guy doesn't have a door stuck to his body - no, that doesn't work.

If you want to have someone opening a door, you have to use the transitive version 開ける.

あの男はドアを開けた。

If somebody opens the door you can interpret the sentence in English as in the following:

1. The man opens the door. - The man is the subject, the door the direct accusative object. This is english active voice, whereas..
2. The door was opened by the man. - .. is passive voice, and "the man" is the by agent opening the door.

In Japanese it seems to be different and more tricky then. I always tried to convert it like this, seemingly it does not work, right? If a subject does something to something, the object f.e., the object has to be marked by を, and the verb has to be transitive?

f.e. 学生は授業で進んだ。 The pupils continued with classes. (is the particle correct, i mean "to continue with sth."?)

Confused