Hi all, how do you reverse the conjugation of a verb?
For example Bunpro has the word: 借ります
And asks me to reverse it.
How would I know what type of verb comes from this (without knowing the word before hand). The ri could make it 借る before or 借りる?
Cheers!
There is no rule that will always work when dealing with る verbs. You have to know whether the verb is godan or ichidan, so you have to know the verb anyway. If you know that then yeah you can reverse conjugations no problem.
Thanks mate thats kind of what my thinking is too, doesn’t that make the question kind of flawed in Bunpro?
Its essentially just asking me the base form vocab (which you either know or you don’t) not really testing you on something you’ve been taught (the grammer). Unless there’s a hint or text I’m missing out on?
The hint says it’s a single conjugation verb, which is ichidan. In ichidan る doesn’t change, it disappears. For example 食べる, 食べます.
Thanks mate!
With the hint it definitely helps, good thing I have them on. Funnily enough my new flash card to learn today is 借りる XD
This information is also present in the okurigana. When a verb has an い-row or え-row kana outside of the kanji before the inflecting kana (in this case り), the verb is an ichidan verb. There are very few exceptions to this rule. Iterating over JMDict with a script shows that godan verbs with い-row and え-row okurigana are limited to the following:
阿ねる, alternatively spelled 阿ね
臥せる
寝そべる
畝ねる, alternatively spelled 畝る
耽ける, alternatively spelled 耽る
嘲ける, alternatively spelled 嘲る
嘲ける, alternatively spelled 嘲る
抓める, alternatively spelled 抓る
翔ける/駆ける, alternatively spelled 翔る
混じる/交じる/雑じる, alternatively spelled 混る or 交る
蘇える/甦える, alternatively spelled 蘇る or 甦る
捩じる/捻じる/拗じる, alternatively spelled as 捩る, 捻る, or 拗る
天翔ける, alternatively spelled as 天翔る
かっ穿じる/掻っぽじる/掻っ穿じる/搔っ穿じる, alternatively spelled as かっ穿る or 掻っ穿る
In every other case you’ll encounter, a verb with an い-row or え-row okurigana will be ichidan.
This information is also present in the okurigana. When a verb has an い-row or え-row kana outside of the kanji before the inflecting kana (in this case り), the verb is an ichidan verb. There are very few exceptions to this rule. Iterating over JMDict with a script shows that godan verbs with い-row and え-row okurigana are limited to the following:
Thanks mate. I had a similar thought when going forward but didn’t think about it when going backwards.
So do you mean, for it to turn into 借ります it would have to be ichidan because the (ka) 借 doesn’t make up the e/i of the iru/eru ending. Thus it must be ichidan (but if the kanji did have an i/e ending then it could be godan).
Sorry, looks like I misunderstood your initial question, which was whether or not it was possible to look at 借ります and immediately tell whether it was conjugated from the ichidan verb 借りる (the correct option in the given question) or the godan verb 借る. The answer to that is that without additional hint it’s not possible.
Not really because in bunpro you will be told that you are wrong and then have the option to undo or show answer. So you don’t need to have it memorized. You just need to say to yourself, “oh, I just it wasn’t a ru verb,” undo and then conjugate it as an u verb.
This quirk of る verbs is really frustrating in Japanese because it’s one of the only unpredictable irregularities in the entire grammar. They were so close!
Well I suppose when it comes to reversing conjugations you also have other issues because the た and て forms of several endings are the same, so if you don’t know the verb you can’t guess if the non-past form of, say, 帰った is 帰る, 帰う or 帰つ.