Difference between 呼ぶ声がします and 呼びます

Question

The full context of the first original phrase is:

「・・・浦島{うらしま}さん、・・・浦島さん」と、誰かが呼{よ}ぶ声｛こえ｝がします。

I was just wondering, why is 声がする in the sentence when there is already 呼ぶ? Or rather, what would be wrong with replacing 呼ぶ声がします with 呼びます?

Answer 1

「・・・浦島さん、・・・浦島さん」と、誰かが呼ぶ声がします。

「・・・浦島さん、・・・浦島さん」と、誰かが呼びます。

Both are grammatically correct.

In the former, 声がします expresses/implies that someone's voice came toward the main character (浦島太郎 here) and he hears it.

So the latter is just:

Someone called, "Urashima-san, Urashima-san..."

while the original sounds more like:

Taro heard someone's voice calling him, "Urashima-san, Urashima-san..."

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The する here means "to sense/perceive".

［声・音・におい・香り・味・感じ・[気]{き} etc.］ + がする

is used to mean "to sense/perceive [voice, sound, smell, taste, feeling, etc.]"

eg

「声がする」 hear a voice
「～の音がする」 hear the sound of ~
「～のにおいがする」 smell ~

For more on this usage of する, you can refer to these threads:

• 「〜がする」 the extended use of する (to do)
• How do I use がする? (ex: いい香りがする)
• What does する mean when it does not mean "do"? （血のにおいがする）

Answer 2

So, in this case 呼ぶ声 is meant to be taken as a sort-of participle which means "a calling voice"/"a voice calling out". So the basic translation of what the sentence is - "'Urashima-san, Urashima-san', someone's voice called." You could use just "呼びます", the difference is mostly a stylistic one. Japanese uses "がします/する" instead of the literal verb, "call" in this case, to give the sentence a matter-of-fact feeling.