I feel I do not understand this website very well

[Tekkera]

Edit: Some very nice people have pointed me in a helpful direction. I will be thoroughly looking into the information sources provided.

Its a similar issue I had before. Right now I have oodles of time once again, for the foreseeable future so I am picking up some Japanese again.

Though I haven’t been here for long at all, I now more understand a bit the friction points I’m having. One of them is overall lack of knowledge getting in my way. Bunpro seems great for learning, and also really hard for learning. I know it’s relatively customizable and easy to tailor to exactly to what one needs. But I feel the more “handicap” I add, I won’t absorb the information as well.

For example the yes/no anki mode. I like this mode, but I don’t feel as engaged with it on. Where as with fill in the blank I am much more engaged but struggle with simple things. Like the many ways verbs end. On top of not knowing many of the words presented, I get presented something I don’t know and am expected to come up with the correct ending of the verb. Which yes is probably completely on me. I feel I am missing an obvious highly important piece of information, or many.

While it does appear bunpro describes many of things like the way a verb with る will change to polite and casual forms. I simply have no idea how many of these exist. I don’t know if the rules for the words are even consistent. Like for us in English.

I ate food.
I had eaten food.
I did not eat food.
I may eat food.
I will eat food.
I do not eat food.

Because this is my native language I don’t even need to think about what I want to say before I say it. But here it feels like I’m being presented these situations without having really been explained deep enough what is being asked of me.

Like I am not entirely sure how I would know what to do in this basic, but necessary to know how to answer scenario. It does explain to me in the ways the words ending can change. I am sure I will encounter a lot more things like this.

Perhaps there are some additional resources I need to look into. Clearly I appear to be lacking some very critical information. So I feel it’s best maybe I ask about this now on the forum as to not dig my own grave of confusion.

[Silbert]

There are rules to conjugation that you will learn over time. In this case, you have to recognize that 起きる (if proceeded withえ・い, oftenるverb ; if あ・う・お, is うverb) is a る-verb, then follow the negation rule for that (drop る and add ない [the negative])

Heavily recommend you use the Kaijugation function (accessible from both the grammar page and under the “practice tab”). You can practice these grammar points until you have it better memorized.

Edit: ‘kajugation’ → ‘kaijugation’

[Tekkera]

To be specific. You are referring to things like these descriptors that are also available within a lesson being taught right? This one having a particularly large amount of variables.

As for “kajugation”. The game called “kaijugation” you mean or is that something different?

[Obviiious]

Did you use the ‘learn’ option when adding new cards to your reviews? This information should be clearly explained with example sentences on the grammer page before you add it to your reviews. (Also accessible by pressing ‘F’ or the ‘Show info’ block during reviews.)

EDIT: The screenshot in your previous comment is what I mean - and the explanation is below that. It looks to be a lot of different conjugations, but if you read the explanation below you will notice that for U-verbs it’s basically just changing to final sound from U to A.

[Kinerae]

Anki Yes/No is a lie, just like the majority of duolingo stuff. Have you noticed that people there deal with “complex” grammar and language yet struggle to say so much as hello?

Bunpro bugging you about basic things is a feature, not a bug. I beseech you to not give in to the feeling that just saying yes or no is enough, it will teach you bad habits and give you a false sense of competence.

[Silbert]

Yeah, sorry, I meant Kaijugation.

Seconding this,

@Obviiious

for U-verbs it’s basically just changing to final sound from U to A.

Although it looks like a lot of info, there is a base pattern. Kaijugation can help you hammer it in outside the grammar srs.

[Tekkera]

I use the learn option. It often is explained well though at this level where many things are new, or I understand but only the most basic level, you can see how it may be a befuddling with the sea of information. As often the information pool available for many grammar points is large. So things can get mixed up easily as someone who is reading no better than a first grader.

I understand that in the most basic sense, the type of word used changes the way the words can end in a certain way. To me it felt like there wasn’t a method to the madness because of how many ways it threw at me it changed.

I feel I’ve gained a lot of insight now on the correct paths to look into now from these replies.

@Kinerae
Precisely why I don’t like the yes/no on here. Bunpro, at least this grammar function I’m using does not feel as tailored towards it. I even feel it not being as helpful as forming the word myself. Basic recollection like not as valuable as proper formulation in this scenario, being more complex than simple “did you remember this card?”.

Duolingo is the devil. I’ve used it for a few weeks. To put it bluntly it seems to be an utterly stupid application created to make money.

So I have come here to ask for advice from any kind souls willing to nudge me the right way. Who have told me to check out kaijugation, and I gladly will.

I feel the issue will be solved for now. If there are any other simple pointers people have I would love to hear them.

[thomas1985]

Using Bunpro to learn basic verb conjugation from zero sounds horrible…I definitely learned that from Genki and YouTube videos before I got into Bunpro.

I just checked out Kaijugation because of this thread, and it actually looks pretty good. I would just ignore the Free Play option until finishing everything in Level Select.

[FinnMAS]

I can’t recommend using Cure Dolly’s Japanese course to get a hold of the grammar basics enough. I only started using bunpro after I was already familiar with all the different verb forms and the majority of my understanding came from her explanations. I personally don’t think I could’ve learned any of these forms as quickly as I did by just using the grammar explanations on here and her ability to teach this language is absolutely astonishing once you get past the weird voice changer.

[Lenners]

Just wanted to say, I started using Bunpro this Spring and felt the same way you’re feeling. A lot of the reviews confused me among many other things.

But I assure you, if you persist with it it’s a wonderful and rich experience. Im wrapping up N5 now I can confidently head into N4 (after my trip) without any hurdles.

A lot of the early grammar points felt very overwhelming also but now they make total sense even if I get them wrong.
Early Bunpro shines when you combine it with videos IMO
I’d really recommend listening to the TokiniAndy Genki grammar series while doing the dishes. It’s like having a teacher with a lot of really handy tips e g.:

(A)ll (U)-verbs (O)only - is the cheatcode for knowing which る verbs don’t wanna follow the rules

If you have any hurdles or questions feel free to reply to this comment and, as a fellow bunpro noob, I’ll happily help/share what I did

[Tekkera]

Lenners -
(A)ll (U)-verbs (O)only - is the cheatcode for knowing which る verbs don’t wanna follow the rules

I will try to remember this one. I read online that there are a couple exceptions. Right now I am trying to drill it in with Kaijugation to get a good feel for what seems right. The time limit puts some pressure on me when I am trying to think of the right form. I am guessing over time I won’t really have to think about it anymore? Does it mostly just come naturally to you now.

thomas1985 -
I just checked out Kaijugation because of this thread, and it actually looks pretty good. I would just ignore the Free Play option until finishing everything in Level Select.

I put in some reps to Kaijugation, along with some manual additional research. Kaijugation is sooooooooooooo good. Exactly one of the tools I needed. I am feel far more equipped now.

[Lenners]

I think so yea.

At this stage I can do basic conjugation semi-intuitively but the harder/longer ones I still have to think about (e.g. -なくてはいけない) since they stack multiple conjugations

Other than that you’ll just know how to do verbs like する due to sheer frequency which is a superpower

Even the U-verb て and た rules seemed overwhelming (unfortunately not as simple as changing all endings to a い)
But it’s actually easy if you pair all the つ looking verbs (る/う/つ), and pair the んだ/んで ones phonetically (they make sense when you say them, not read them)

Also I haven’t done kaijugation game yet so no doubt you’ll be able to do it without thinking if you keep playing that

Often these little mountains are just small hills… But also false summits lol

[Hairymini]

Bunpro is very Spartan for complete newcomers. It’s a powerful tool once you know the basics, but it can be mind numbingly frustrating if you don’t. I’d recommend picking up a beginner textbook and working through it, then starting with Bunpro.

Or if you’re insistent on Bunpro, start with the reading mode, translate the sentences to English and then work through the Cloze output once you’re comfortable reading.g.

[phylocybe]

I used Bunpro for many months in 2024 before I moved to Japan for 18 months and struggled (to a similar extent that you are struggling) with conjugation during reviews, which led to a lot of frustration. At the language school I attended we learned conjugation by brute force memorization to the point that now that I’m back, the only time I get conjugation wrong is when I don’t read even read which form it wants from me and just try to guess to get through reviews faster.

So yeah I guess my recommendation would be to find a method that allows you to brute force as many conjugations as possible as quickly as possible. It will probably seem very hard at first but it will eventually become second nature (like how right now I know that there are exceptions to the conjugation rules but beyond くる and する, they all just become ‘the way this verb is conjugated’ instead of ‘exceptions to the rule’ if that makes sense.

[Tekkera]

I have come to report the good news of my improvements to basic conjugation comprehension, all thanks to the lovely users of this forum. Now I just need to stop getting tripped up by the exceptions.