Using suru with nouns

[ZeRinku]

I am confused. I don't get how you can make so many nouns into verbs. Can pretty much any noun be turned into a verb by adding する? For example if I want to say "to play a game" is this correct, ゲームする? What I guess I am not getting is that there are so many verbs that don't use する. And for some nouns that you add する too can't there be a verb already for it, or not? For example I thought of this...can't you say "I play baseball" 2 ways? 僕は野球する and 僕は野球を遊ぶ ? I just really am confused with this. Can someone explain this in detail? Thank you so much!

[Psy]

Can pretty much any noun be turned into a verb by adding する?

Not every noun, but a whole bunch of nouns-- and even if you attach する to a noun that it isn't normally associated with, you can still get the meaning across though it will sound a little silly. You can turn a huge number of the 2-kanji compound words (most of these come from Chinese) into a verb by this means also.

For example if I want to say "to play a game" is this correct, ゲームする?

That's correct.

can't you say "I play baseball" 2 ways? 僕は野球する and 僕は野球を遊ぶ ?

Technically you can, though rather than 野球を遊ぶ it would be 野球をする。The を here is totally optional. Something in the back of my head tells me there's a tiny difference in nuance between をする and する, but for the life of me I don't remember what it was.

[ZeRinku]

Can pretty much any noun be turned into a verb by adding する?

Not every noun, but a whole bunch of nouns-- and even if you attach する to a noun that it isn't normally associated with, you can still get the meaning across though it will sound a little silly. You can turn a huge number of the 2-kanji compound words (most of these come from Chinese) into a verb by this means also.

For example if I want to say "to play a game" is this correct, ゲームする?

That's correct.

can't you say "I play baseball" 2 ways? 僕は野球する and 僕は野球を遊ぶ ?

Technically you can, though rather than 野球を遊ぶ it would be 野球をする。The を here is totally optional. Something in the back of my head tells me there's a tiny difference in nuance between をする and する, but for the life of me I don't remember what it was.

Thank you! So only 2 kanji compounds can be used with する ?

[Psy]

Thank you! So only 2 kanji compounds can be used with する ?

You can use it with all sorts of words-- I just meant that a lot of the 2-character compounds out there can also be used with する.

[hatch_jp]

Thank you! So only 2 kanji compounds can be used with する ?

These are some examples using only 1 kanji noun with する
得（とく）する (to gain a profit)
損（そん）する (to incur loss)
噂（うわさ）する (to rumor)
旅（たび）する (to trip)

These are some examples using a katakana noun with する
メールする(to e-mail)
クリックする(to click)
ダウンロードする(to download)
メモする(to take a note)