Motion Verbs（つまむ・つかむ・あける・ひらく・しめる・とじる　など））

Here are the Japanese phrases I said in the video (explanation of vocabulary is at the bottom of this article).

ボトルがあって、フタがあります。このフタをつまむ。

つまんでフタをしめる。

回す

フタをしめる。

フタをする。

このボトルにフタをする。

このボトルのフタをしめる。

どちらでもいいです。

このボトルをつまんで持ち上げます。

持ち上げる。

持つ。

ボトルを持っています。

つまむ。

つかむ。

今私はボトルをつかんでいます。つかんでいて、ボトルをはなす。

ボトルをはなしました。

ボトルをつかんで持ち上げて、頭を叩く。

私は今自分の頭を叩いています。

痛くないです。

このボトルを手と手で挟んでおります。

挟む

今ボトルを挟んでいます。

これは本です。本をひらきます。

例えば、174ページをひらきました。

ポイントは、「あける」とは言いません。

「174ページをあけました」は変です。

174ページをひらきました。そしてこの本をとじます。

しめる

「本をしめる」 sounds weird.

とじる

フタをあける。

フタをひらく (unnatural)。

ドアがあく

note: Even if it is a door that slides open, you can still use 開く.

本がひらく・本がとじる

※usually people more often say 「本をひらく」「本をとじる」because people use 「ひらく」「とじる」as transitive verbs when they talk about books. But when it comes to doors, people use them as intransitive verbs, 「ドアがひらく」「ドアがとじる」. It is confusing, so I added explanation of this at the end of the article.

フタがひらく、フタがとじる (unnatural)

フタをあける・フタをしめる。

蛇口をあける・蛇口をしめる

蛇口をひらく、蛇口をとじる (unnatural)

Vocabulary

⚫︎つまむ：pinch something with two long objects, like fingers (sometimes, chopsticks).

・彼は寿司を指でつまんで食べた。He picked sushi with fingers and ate it.

・あまりの臭さに、皆自分の鼻をつまんでいた。Everyone was pinching their own noses because it was so stinky.

・彼はみかんを箸でつまんで食べていた。He was eating tangerine using chopsticks.

⚫︎しめる：close something (so that to prevent something from going out (or coming in) from it). Please read the text at the bottom for further explanation.

・ガスの元栓をしめた。Closed the gas main.

・蚊が入るから、窓をしめて。Close the window so that mosquitoes won't enter.

・娘が熱を出したので、今日は1時に店をしめた。I closed the store at one o'clock today because my daughter got fever.

⚫︎まわす：rotate, turn something.

・鍵を開けるには、鍵を時計回りに回してください。Please turn the key clockwise to open the lock.

⚫︎ふたをする：put a lid on something

・鍋に蓋をして、30分で煮詰めます。Cover the pot with a lid and stew for 30 minutes.

⚫︎もちあげる：lift something up, hold something up

・彼はバーベルを頭の上に持ち上げた。He lifted up barbell above his head.

⚫︎もつ：hold, carry

・彼女は手に石を持っています。She is holding a rock in her hand.

・彼は銃を持っています。He is carrying a gun.

・私は今お金を持っていません。I don't have money right now.

⚫︎つかむ：grab

・彼は私の胸ぐらを掴んだ。He grabbed me by the collar.

・危ないので、手すりを掴んでください。Please hold on to the handrail, it is dangerous.

⚫︎はなす：release

・彼は私の手を離した。He let go of my hand.

・釣った魚を海に放した。I released the fish I caught back into the sea.

⚫︎たたく：hit, beat (the difference from なぐる is that たたく refers to the action of hitting that doesn't cause much serious damage, like hitting something with your palm, or hitting with something that is light and thin. But なぐる refers to action of hitting with a fist or something blunt, that often causes some damage. If someone hits someone with a baseball bat and injures someone, then people usually use なぐる. )

・彼女は僕のほおを叩いた。She slapped my cheek.

・孫が肩を叩いてくれた。My grandson hit my shoulder (gave me massage on my shoulder)

・悪いことをすると父はいつも私の尻を叩いた。My dad used to slap my butt whenever I misbehaved.

・彼はドラムを叩いている。He is beating the drum.

⚫︎はさむ：put something in between two objects.

・彼女は傘を脇に挟んでいた。She was holding an umbrella under her arm (between her arm and body).

・指を車のドアに挟んだ。My finger got caught in the door.

・ハムをパンに挟んで食べた。I put a slice of ham in between two slices of bread and ate them.

⚫︎ひらく：It's complicated, please take a look at the explanation at the bottom.

⚫︎とじる：It's complicated, please take a look at the explanation at the bottom.

⚫︎蛇口（じゃぐち）：faucet

・なんか水の音がするなあ。蛇口をちゃんと閉めた？I can hear water running. Have you closed the faucet?

Which one to use? あける・ひらく・あく・しめる・しまる・とじる?

あける：refers to a deliberate action of opening something. It is only used as a transitive verb.  You can use it when you open doors, windows, bottles, stores, boxes or even when you want to say "open your mouth/eyes". ドアをあける(open the door)、窓をあける(open the window)、ボトルをあける(open the bottle)、店をあける(open the shop)、箱をあける(open the box)、目をあける(open the eyes)、口をあける(open the mouth)。

あく：is an intransitive version of あける. ドアがあく(the door opens)、窓があく(the window opens)、ボトルがあく(the bottle opens)、目があく(the eye opens)、口があく(the mouth opens)（people usually don't say 店が開く）.

ひらく：has two usages, one is to use it as a transitive verb and the other as an intransitive verb. ひらく as an intransitive verb is used only in particular situations. For some reasons, you can say 「ドアがひらく(the door will open)」, but you cannot say 「窓がひらく(the window will open (sounds weird.)」. Other than doors, you can use ひらく as a transitive verb when you want to say some flower's buds opened or some wounds opened. ユリのつぼみがひらいた (The lily buds opened), 塞がった傷口がひらいた (The wound that had been healed opened again).

You can also use ひらく as a transitive verb. The difference between あける and ひらく is that while あける refers to an action of opening something shut, like doors, windows, faucets, mouth, eyes, ひらく refer to unfolding something or uncovering something. An umbrella is folded, and you open it. This action of "unfolding" can be expressed by ひらく, but not あける（傘をひらく）. Or as I explained in the video, that movement of opening with pivoting, like book or door (even though when you mention door it is usually intransitive form of ひらく),  you can use ひらく to express it. You can also say 「両足をひらく」 to say spread both legs wide open, because this motion uses the same kind of rotation, with hip joint as the pivot. You can also use ひらく to say things like メールをひらく(open the e-mail)、ファイルをひらく(open the file).

There are other usages of ひらく, like "to hold some event" 「誕生日会をひらく」. But I don't dig it in detail because that would make this article overly long.

しめる (transitive) antonym of あける, basically you can use しめる on objects that you can use あける on. But when you talk about "eyes" and "mouth", you don't use 「しめる」 to say "close the eyes" "close the mouth", in this case you have to use 「とじる」, 目をとじる(close the eyes)・口をとじる(close the mouth)。ドアをしめる(close the door)、窓をしめる(close the window)、ボトルをしめる(close the bottle)、店をしめる(close the store)、箱をしめる(close the box)。

しまる (intransitive) has only limited usages, it is used when you say "door shuts" "window shuts" or some store closes. ドアがしまる(the door closes)、窓がしまる(the window closes)、店がしまる(the store closes)。

とじる is like ひらく, it is used as both transitive and intransitive verb. When you use it as an intransitive verb, you can use it like ひらく、ドアがとじる、窓がとじる（sounds a bit weird）、傷口がとじる。When you use it as a transitive verb, you can basically use it like ひらく, 傘をとじる(fold the umbrella)、本をとじる(close the book)、両足を閉じる(close the legs)、メールを閉じる(close the e-mail)、ファイルを閉じる(close the file)。But you cannot use it to talk about closing of some event, saying 「誕生日会を閉じる」 is incorrect.

Please note that there are other usages of those words that I haven't explained. Like あける（開ける） also has meaning of "to empty（空ける）" or "to end（明ける）" etc.