たがる - past form

What is the past form of たがる?

1 リサがあのサンドイッチを見みて、食べたがった
2 リサがあのサンドイッチを見みて、食べたがた

Why first sentence is correct while the second is wrong?

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Its a う verb, not a る verb, thats why its the first one.
All る verbs have either an i or an e before hand, which is why たがる is not a る verb, cause theres an a before hand! They are often known as iru or eru verbs.
(Although theres lots of う verbs that are iru or eru which is super confusing)
Hope that makes sense, Tofugu has lots of good resources for explaining grammer too

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I understand now. Thank you.

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This is why I agree with the sentiment that う verbs is nonsensical, since ALL verbs end on an う sound. Unfortunately Genki teaches verb conjugation in this way, so a lot of people end up learning it like that (BTW, your explanation to the OP question is spot on, so my dig here is on how Japanese verbs are sometimes being taught).

The best way to learn verb conjugations is by the 一段動詞 (いちだんどうし) = Ichidan Verbs, 五段動詞 (ごだんどうし) = Godan Verbs and 不規則動詞 (ふきそくどうし) = Irregular Verbs classification. It’s MUCH more straightforward, IMO.

Here’s a video explaining this, if you’re interested:

And if you really want to go in depth, with pretty much all the conjugations possible, here’s this video:

HTH!

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Just don’t go too deep or fall into the Abyss of 四段動詞 and it’s implication

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Yeah I learnt it by ichidan etc but ru vs u is easier to explain quickly lmao
I think it would be nice for the weird ones(the u verbs that end in iru or eru) bunpro should give you a hint if you get the conjugation type wrong, I still regularly get them wrong and most of my ghosts are because of it

I disagree that the u-verbs and ru-verbs explanation is easier. Something as confusing as that can’t be easier. It’s probably the reason why you’re still not getting Ichidan verbs.

It’s REALLY simple:

1 - Irregular verbs: 来る and する. There are other exceptions (like 行く and ある), but let’s just keep it simple.

2- Ichidan verbs: Are verbs ending in an いる and える sound. That said, there are about 10 or so Godan verbs that end in an いる/える sound. That’s it! Learn them and you can be confident that anything else ending in いる/える is an Ichidan verb. See the screenshot below.

3- Godan verbs: Literally everything else.

If you learn Japanese verb conjugation in this manner, I promise you will not make a mistake ever again. I think I ran into another いる/える exception once, but I haven’t encountered it since, so I forgot what it was.

HTH!

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Yeah I learnt it like that, i meant it was easier to type out cause i only had a few minutes till class ended. Thanks for the screenshot

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I see!

Even then, I think it’s detrimental to explain it that way because it’s confusing, as you pointed out. Honestly, it should be erased from everyone’s memory. That’s how bad it is.

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Hi guys!

Just wanted to mention the other Ichidan verb that I’ve encountered before, but couldn’t remember when I made the post about the easiest way to memorize Japanese conjugations above :point_up:. As I was working on my BunPro reviews, I had to conjugate it and then I remembered!

The verb is: 減る (へる) = To decrease.

This is another Godan verb that ends with an いる/える sound. I’m sure there are more, but they’re probably rare.

Take care!!

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入る, 帰る, 走る, 喋る, 要る, 蹴る, 限る and 滑る
here are some more if it helps anyone

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弄る (いじる) comes to mind. Fairly common word although nowhere near as common as some others listed here.

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All of those are already on my screenshot above :point_up:.

This one however, I knew but did not realize it was a Godan verb.

Thanks for sharing it!

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BTW, out of curiosity, I just looked up 弄る on Jisho and was surprised by the 1st definition of it (and also the 5th one, lol):

I knew it as “To torment”, “To bully/make fun of”, but my mind is probably not in the right place currently :joy: .

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oops I didnt see the screenshot lol. And that 弄る meaning made me laugh xD

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いじめる is more common for bullying in my experience. The context in real life I hear いじる the most is when people are playing with their phone (“stop messing with your phone and listen” kinda thing). In novels I sometimes see it but I feel like I see 弄り回す (いじくりまわす) and 弄ぶ (もてあそぶ) used a bit more as they have the nuance of twirling or fiddling (respectively) and I guess they perhaps sound a bit more descriptive or nuanced outside of common collocations. I can’t say I use these words much myself so take what I’m saying with a grain of salt.

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Ah! That’s what I was getting it confused with, you’re right. 苛める is the word I was thinking about.

Even though Jisho has the “To make fun of” definition in there, I think you’re right that this word is different given the meaning of the Kanji 弄 (which is “play with, tamper, trifle with”).

In any case, thanks again for bringing up this exception word to our attention. If you (or anyone else) think of any other exceptions, please feel free to post them here.

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I decided to have this info in it’s dedicated thread here:

That way it’s easier to find in a search, since this thread is about a different topic.

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