Understanding verb rules

Bunpro
#1

Hello, I am relatively new to bunpro, and I have a question that I can’t really seem to find an answer for. When bunpro teaches me about rules for verbs, there is often one line for (る1) and another for (る5). What is the difference?

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#2

Hey and welcome on forums :grinning:

First of all, your avatar is really cool :star_struck:

Ok, coming back to the topic:

る１ is used for ichidan verbs(ru verbs) , and る5 is used for godan verbs with ru ending (u verbs with ru ending).

Although those two kinds of verbs end with る they conjugate differently.

Verb Ex. Non-past Short Ex. Non-Past Polite Ex. Past Short Ex. Past Polite
V(る5) 座 る 座 ります 座った 座りました
V(る1) 見 る 見ます 見た 見ました
Verb Dictionary Conjunctive Negative Imperative Volitional
V(る5) 座 る 座 り 座らない 座れ 座ろう
V(る1) 食べ る 食べ 食べない 食べろ 食べよう

Generally ichidan verbs end with eru and iru.
miru 見る taberu 食べる

Cheers :+1:

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#3

@DD_Owl Check out post above :+1:

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#4

Thanks a lot mrnoone! Sorry I didn’t see your post earlier, I think there was a problem with the system where I wasn’t getting notifications.

Thank you for helping me out, that explains a lot!

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#5

I often referred to this: http://rcl.pliable.us/J-verbs.html

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#6

I feel it’s important to point out that “ichidan” and “godan” are actually 一段 and 五段, which are literally words that mean “1-Step” and “5-Step” (verbs).

The 1-Step verbs are the ones where you only have to drop る, then add whatever you want afterwards.
The 5-Step verbs are the ones where you need to change the end of the verb stem to the appropriate kana. For example, the う in 買う can become:

  1. 買わない* (negative)
  2. 買います (polite)
  3. 買った (completed tense)
  4. 買える (potential)
  5. 買おう (volitional)

The う on 買う changes 5 different ways, so it is a godan/5-Step/五段 verb.
The る on 食べる doesn’t change (it either gets dropped or it doesn’t), so it is an ichidan/1-Step/一段 verb.

 

* verbs ending in う will never conjugate to あ. う will always become わ instead for negative forms.

Bonus fun fact about Japanese verbs:
死ぬ (しぬ), “to die,” is the only verb in the language that ends with an N-sound (ぬ).
This means it’s also the only verb to end with a weird-looking double-な in its negative form:
死なない

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