Verb[た] - Grammar Discussion

Grammar Points
#6

I think that vertically, it does look a more attractive now! I still feel like it’s not well organized horizontally though. What happens is that I see “Casual form => Past casual form” and then I’m forced to go “past casual => past formal”, which is not how my brain visualizes it. I think this depends on how one learns verb conjugation. Let me explain:

If you guys believe that learning 歩く => 歩いた AND 歩く => 歩きました is the way to go, then I think having 2 tables separating casual from formal would be ideal (in parallel). What happens right now is that by looking at that table, my brain associates 歩く => 歩いた (perfect, that’s how I learned, that’s how I visualize it in my head and that’s how I’m seeing in the table) and 歩いた => 歩きました which feels extremely awkward for me because in my brain I don’t go “past casual => past formal”, but “casual form => past formal”.

Nevertheless, this is me going deep on details (as you guys know me). I think that your version does look much less chaotic now :slight_smile:

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#7

Hi,

First off, let me say this is a phenomenal website.

Having said that, I find the structure for this lesson hard to parse without the furigana. I can’t read any of the kanji without them, which makes the structure harder to parse.

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Would it be possible to add furigana to this (and all the structures that have kanji)?

Thanks!

- Ilya

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#8

What does the regular in 行きました(regular) mean?

#9

It means that 行った is irregular (it does not follow the pattern of other verbs that end in く) and 行きました is regular (it follows the same pattern of any other verb that ends in く)

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#10

Oh. Okay I understand. Thank you very much! :smile:

#11

I’m having a hard time understanding when you use た conjugation to show past tense versus when you use かった. And I can’t figure out how to ask google this question. Can someone tell me when you use one over the other?
Is it that う verbs use te form and い forms get katta? Or do they actually just mean different things entirely? I’m just missing something and I don’t know what it is.

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#12

You are using the same た in both cases. I think you are thinking about how you conjugate i adjectives when attaching た.

To attach た to an i adjective you must first put that i adjective into continuous form by replacing い with かっ.

It might help you remember if you know the origin of かった. It comes from a contraction of く (from the more common continuous form of an i adjective) and あった.

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#13

Like Gyro said, past tense is conjugated differently for verbs and both kids of adjectives. Each conjugation is taught on Bunpro for what the rules are, have you already added them to your reviews?

May need to consult Tae Kim (or your personal favorite creator!) so they can explain the rules in more detail to you and explain why it’s getting used. These things trip up most learners at one stage, I know myself I was confused but I promise it’s gonna click soon!

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#14

ohhh it’s the same thing just how you write it! okay that makes sense for some reason i was thinknig they were two different things! Thanks guys

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#15

Welcome to the wonderful, beautiful and confusing world of Japanese grammar hahaha. Feel free to ask any and all questions along the way, it really does make the process a million times more enjoyable :slight_smile:

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#16

This is the most difficult grammar point so far, I’m really struggling to take in the wealth of information in one go.

I’d highly recommend splitting う-Verb (Past) into 1 point for each kana.

5 Likes
#17

for this question: 彼は学校へ行った。彼は学校へ行きました。

the correct answer is: いった but it says my answer is wrong. the only way that it’ll accept my answer is if i copy/paste った and add い. am i missing something here? annoying af

#18

I’m using hints so I have no problem, but out of curiousity.

Is there actually a way to know that the past is requested just by looking at the sentence?

大学にカフェが________。[ある]

#19

Nope. None whatsoever from that sentence.

Unless the sentence references some event in the past, like “yesterday, before, when I attended college” you usually won’t know it’s past tense until the end, without having any context from earlier conversation

#20

Seeing as this lesson doesn’t seem to have undergone any further change, just wanted to say that the same goes for me. This is the one grammar point I’m really stuck on. Splitting it into multiple lessons would be amazing!

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#21

Agree this is too much for a single SRS card

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#22

Has anyone come up with a good way to remember all the different structures? I feel like this shouldn’t be that hard, but it’s the fact that all of the structures are thrown at you at once that it makes it hard to memorize which one to use.

I really do feel like this topic should be broken up into three or four distinct SRS cards/lessons.
One for った
One for いた
One for んだ
And maybe even one for the exceptions.

4 Likes
#23

I’m glad to see I’m not the only one getting whooped by this card. I haven’t progressed on anything new to learn because I really want to hammer this out before I take on new cards.

#24

Should it help anyone, there’s a simple but effective ta-conjugation practice tool here: Past Form Practice | Steven Kraft

#25

For anyone who struggles with memorizing all the conjugations for this grammar point, put this song on loop until you just absorb everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh8SWMYBeus. It’s the most effortless way to learn them.

2 Likes