List of Official and Japanese Conjugation Names?

Japanese
#1

Hi,

TL;DR: Do you know of a good recourse for official and Japanese names of the Japanese conjugations?

I have realized that I have learnt many forms that I dont know precisely, such as realis, irrealis, conclusive and so on. For example, Genki teaches verbs as る- and う-verbs, but “officially” they are called ichidan (一段) and godan (五段). The “must” conjugation 行かなければ いけない is “negative hypothetical” + potential. When I first learnt this, I did not learn the constructions, or the names There are still many forms I read and use that I am not aware of. I would like detailed information about the grammar constructions and the official and Japanese names. Is there any good website or recourse for a overview of this? I find something by googling here and there, but I have not found a very clear and complete explanation. For example, Bunpro has a lot of good explanation (at least after the recent updates), but it is still not complete.

Thank you

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#2

The Wikipedia page on Japanese verb conjugations is a pretty good place to start. Also, there is a Japanese verbs appendix on Wiktionary that has some additional information.

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#3

One of the most useful diagrams (at least in my mind), is the 活用 table that highlights how all 18 of modern Japanese’s auxiliary verbs are conjugated.

https://www.kokugobunpou.com/助動詞/助動詞活用表/#gsc.tab=0
https://www.kokugobunpou.com/助動詞/助動詞活用表/

If you get a good feel for these (plus the plain verb/adj 活用 chart), you should feel way more confident in conjugating just about anything.

For example, if you see a new grammar point, and the structure chart says:

verb + x
い-adj + い + x
な-adj + な + x
noun + x

It can feel like you need to memorize 4 different things. However, if you are familiar with 連体形 (forms of words that pair with nouns), youd recognize that all 4 are 連体形, and therefore only need to memorize one thing. It’s basically the same for all other grammar points. What looks like several possibilities is really just one thing with a specific name in Japanese.

We are planning to put this information on the website eventually, and explain how to get a much better feel for them as well. 100% agree that knowing the Japanese forms is far more useful in the long run.

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#4

Thank you! The recourse given might be a little too advanced for me, but I will try to give it a go.

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#5

Thanks!

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#6

If by official you mean Japanese native grammar or 国語文法, the six 活用 forms are

未然形
連用形
終止形
連体形
仮定形
命令形

Using your example of 行かなければいけない you have

未然形 of 行く=> 行か＋ない (ない is a 助動詞 here not a “form”. You use 未然形 of 行く because that is the form the verb needs to take for ない to attach.)

仮定形 of ない => なけれ＋ば (ば is 接続助詞. Similar to above, you use 仮定形 of ない because that is what ば attaches to.)

未然形 of 行ける => 行け＋ない (same as above)

So you get (行か＋なけれ＋ば）＋（行け＋ない)

Is this the kind of thing you are looking for? It may look advanced but its actually quite straight forward if you start from the beginning. I learnt Japanese this way and its actually much simpler and more logical since you’re actually learning the rules and structure.

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#7

Is there any book or resource that you recommend for learning this method?

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#8

If you are comfortable learning in Japanese. There are a lot of options since it’s just native Japanese grammar and there are a lot of kids who aren’t that great at it.

Two examples:
The website Asher already linked is a pretty accessible one. The formatting allows for easy referencing. This is a good place to start if you just want to check it out.
https://www.kokugobunpou.com/#gsc.tab=0
This playlist by とある男が授業をしてみた covers everything in middle school. It’s hard for me to tell how much someone starting from scratch would understand but I think his explanations are quite good.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKRhhk0lEyzM-XOmo9F55BoRlPSSivcVd

I personally started with a small middle school entrance exam prep book. This is one of the styles of books you can go with. It has colorful charts and useful key points but it is a bit brief on the explanations.
Amazon Link

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this one over other ones but this is the one I have.

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#9

I can definitely vouch for that Youtube channel. That guy is very popular with native students and explains things quite clearly.

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