Hi all,
Is it possible to prioritise formal speech over casual on the reviews? I’d say the reviews I get are mainly asking for casual conjugations and I figure that since casual and formal are bundled into single grammar units, it doesn’t really matter which you end up doing.
Perhaps I’m missing an educational point, or perhaps I wouldn’t even like it if there is this feature, but I’d like to try it out if there is.
Great app, keep up the good work!!
I hope I’m understanding your question correctly, and if not feel free to ignore me, but there’s an importance to knowing both because several of the “casual” conjugations are used even in formal situations.
For example:
“I have seen this bird (before).”
「この鳥を見ましたことがあります」。Is something you never hear, or at least I’ve never heard it. This would likely be a wrong answer on the JLPT. I’d go as far to say this is straight-up incorrect but I could be wrong.
「この鳥を見たことがあります。」is correct and still formal.
Basically, and this is my non-Japanese teacher self talking, you’re going to be using a lot of different conjugations as time goes on. It’s best to study them now because you will encounter them intermingling at higher levels in both formal and casual contexts.
Ah, well this sounds like my misunderstanding then! I’m not even N5 so wouldn’t have had the knowledge to discern this for myself yet. That does make perfect sense. It sounds like the words casual and formal are perhaps not perfect describers of the different ways to conjugate. From my point of view it does just make me feel like I’m learning two grammar systems, one for talking to your boss, and one for talking to friends.
Thanks for the insight!
Eventually, around N4 level, there’s going to be a whole other level of politeness that even native Japanese speakers have trouble with. 
Honestly though you’ll “get it” over time! It took me awhile too. I still find myself making mistakes with it!
Patience, you will get there. Also I think it is a trap to think that you are learning causal speech per se. It is more that you are learning the dictionary form of the verbs and adjectives. They are foundational, you cannot skip them and have a full capacity with the formal speech.
In addition even in the most polite sentence only use the final verb to actually connotes the formality of the expression beyond word choice or particular grammar constructions that themselves are polite or not.
The trap is that when a dictionary/infinitive form is used at the end of an expression it cast the sentence in a casual register. This is because there is no special formality marker being associated to the word.
There’s not even true normal and polite only, it’s more like: rude, normal, polite, super saiyan polite.