I think we all are familiar with する verbs, which are verbs that are formed by appending する to nouns. Examples include 勉強する, 愛する etc. This pattern is very convenient because it can be appended to almost anything, such as ライクする (to 'Like' a Facebook post).
There is another common verbification pattern, which is the つく verbs. Examples include 嘘つく, 傷つく etc. However, unlike する which simply means "to do", つく has a lots of meanings and kanji characters. When I queried in WWWJDIC, つく has at least 8 variants, including but not limited to 付く, 就く, 点く, 突く, 着く etc. While I observe many of these verbs are made of 付く, there are some that are made of different variants like 落着く {おちつく} and 楯突く {たてつく}, and some even have multiple variants, for example うそつく can be written as both 嘘付く and 嘘吐く. How do we tell (apart from referring to a dictionary of course) which つく that made up a particular つく verb, for example むかつく?
There is also a question on particles on the extended verb phrase. For example, while 傷つく is 傷をつく and 嘘つく is 嘘をつく, 気づく is actually 気がつく. What about, again, むかつく? Is it むかをつく or むかがつく? In a Google search, I even saw むかとつく. So, in general, how do we actually tell which particle is used in a particular verb?
Answer
Before I come back to a rough rubric for determining which kanji to use, let me take a stab at the second half of your question: namely, how to tell which particle to use. This is a relatively simple problem in most cases. If the verb is transitive (i.e. it can have an object), it uses を. If the verb is intransitive (it can't have an object), then it uses が. This is why it's 気が付く, because 付く is an intransitive verb. The transitive form of 付く is 付ける, which leads us to another phrase you've likely heard before... 気を付ける.
The problem is that some つく are transitive, and others are intransitive. Unfortunately, you just have to memorize the lists.
- Transitive (を): 突く、吐く
- Intransitive (が): 付く、着く
That covers all the main ones. Basically, everything except 突く and 吐く are intransitive and therefore use が.
Now, moving back to the first part of your question: how to tell which つく is part of a given word. The first rule of thumb seems to be that for just about anything, you seem to be able to use 付く (even the transitive ones like 吐く, strangely enough). Other than this exception, if you think about the word, and understand the meanings of the various つく, you should be able to figure it out with at least a decently high degree of accuracy. Here's a list:
突く (also 衝く, 撞く, 捺く) - to thrust/strike
If the idea requires pinpoint accuracy or is agressive, this could be your word. A relatively obvious example is 雲突く【くもつく】 (to tower: "to thrust through the clouds"). One less obvious is 毒突く【どくづく】 (to curse at someone: "to attack someone with poison [of the mouth? :p]).吐く - to breathe/expel
The most common example is 嘘を吐く【うそをつく】 (to lie: "to spit lies"). It's usually used either for speaking negative things or breathing -- usually outward, e.g. ため息を吐く (to breath a sigh).着く - to reach/arrive
If you think about it, words such as 落ち着く begin to make sense. We use a very similar metaphor in English: "settle down." One's mood reaches a more normal point after falling. Occasionally, it is also used in things having to do with clothing (that would normally be 付く), probably due to the kanji's use in 着る【きる】 (and less commonly, 着く【はく】).
There are several others, but these are the main ones. Many of them can arbitrarily be replaced with 付く, which actually seems to have subsumed some of the less common ones (such as 点く and 憑く). Unfortunately, this answer is already much too long, and covering every one of the extremely large number of つく verbs is likely beyond the scope of this website.
One final note: No dictionary that I can find lists a kanji for the つく in むかつく, but if I were to guess, I would say 着く ("reaching an irritated state"). Alternately, 付く, which seems to be a relatively safe bet quite a bit of the time. However, it seems that this word, at least, is normally only written in kana.
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