Verbs and adjectives: is there an SRS resource? And how to deal with them in Bunpro?

Bunpro
#1

As I posted here, I frequently fail a grammar lesson, even when I got the meat of the lesson correct, because I got a base conjugation wrong (usually I failed to recognize that a verb ending in る was a Godan verb, or that an adjective ending in い was actually a な adjective). Which leads me to a number of questions (both for myself and for all of you).

How should I handle such a failure? Usually I undo/redo it, essentially giving myself credit since the verb/adjective categorization was not what I was being quizzed on. But it still makes me feel dirty.

Where/how should I learn verb and adjective categorizations? Particularly the two weird cases I mentioned above (irregular Godan verbs and な adjectives). I own Genki and many other classic resources, but I seem to make much better and more consistent use of my time using my two primary SRS apps: WK and BP. And while I always knew these two apps alone wouldn’t be enough to truly master Japanese, I thought they would get me a long way. Now I’m realizing that “long way” is shorter than I thought, since this “categorization” issue is making me feel clueless when completing sentences that I would otherwise have mastered. Is there an SRS resource dedicated to this topic?

Should Bunpro handle this differently? One idea is that it could (optionally) reveal to the user the correct categorization, so we’re only actually tasking ourselves with conjugation/grammar, NOT trying to figure out the categorization of the verb/adjective (which is arguably a vocab detail which should not be required to pass a grammar lesson). Thoughts?

#2

I recommend doing some drills using Don’s conjugation drills - you can set up all the options so it targets specifically what you’re struggling with most!

Edit: To answer your question though - it depends how strict you want to be with yourself. If it’s frustrating you getting a small conjugation wrong when you’ve answered everything else correctly, then I’d say undoing is best.

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#3

I am personally not a fan of how genki teaches verb conjugation, and that made it difficult for me for a while.
This may not work for you, but how I learned was to conjugate from the “masu” form, which I was more familiar with. I also learned verb types as group 1, 2, and 3, not godan, ichidan and irregular.
E.g. (group 1/godan verbs).
会います → あって ok, i turns into small tsu
あります → あって ok, ri also turns into small tsu
歩きます → 歩いて ok, ki turns into i
行きます → 行って except for here, haha

Getting more comfortable with Te form verbs then made me more comfortable with recognising other group 1/godan verbs. I can sound it out in my head and usually guess what sounds right to me. For example- okoru. What sounds more natural to me, okorimasu or okomasu? Say I think the natural option is “okorimasu,” okay. If its a group 1/godan verb, then that will become okotte, because ri becomes small tsu. If its a group 2/ichidan, it will become okorite. What then sounds more natural to me? Okotte sounds more likely in my brain than okorite, because ichidan verbs using “ri” are fairly uncommon (kariru, oriru are some but they are outliers and you get used to them through usage).

Basically, what happened to me is repeated exposure with conjugations of a fairly small verb list has allowed me to kind of “feel out” what is the most likely conjugation. I still make mistakes, but I also often catch myself checking conjugations in my head this way. For that reason, I don’t think a whole SRS system would help so much as memorisation of a few key verbs for reference. Even a small list starts to give you a feel for the natural flow of words, imo.

Also, input helps. Even unconscious input. You might think “ok it’s probably okorite” but then a small part of the back of your brain is like, “really? I think I remember hearing okotte a lot, but never okote or or okorite…” and they slowly but surely get embedded in your brain.

I know this is a really winding and maybe confusing comment, but I just wanted to share what personally worked for me instead of relying on the system of guessing verb conjugations from their dictionary form. For the record, I can do that now, but it didn’t come naturally to me.

Anyway, just my 2 cents!

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#4

Really, I would just find some and write them down. Ive never used Dons Conjugation Drills before though it seems cool. But when it comes to irregulars, there are only like 10 so you will memorize them. And when you get to Passive/Causative conjugations it kinda makes sense why those verbs are the way they are. する and 来る are expected to be different and I dont like how 来る conjugates because the kanji remains while the spoken is changed but alas.

Do you know how to recognize them on sight for the most part? Another way of thinking of the verbs are as -e/-i verbs and everything else. I think Tae Kims explains it this way though I could be wrong.

食べるtab e ru so its an ichidan
生きるik i ru
いる i ru (not to be confused with 要る)
負けるmak e ru

All those are ichidan verbs, Regular Verbs -e/-i verbs however you call them because the sound BEFORE -ru is either the -e or the -i

I would also look into

“The handbook of Japanese Verbs”

because it SUPER fucking helped me put into perspective why certain verbs conjugate the way they do. Im thinking of snagging the adjective book too by the same author. Sometimes, just getting stuck on something and reading like 3 different explanations helps because each way explains and uses different examples.

#5

Personally, I didn’t practice any of these and just read a lot. Recently I started some random textbook work featuring such conjugation/declination drills and I noticed I developed a good intuition for the more common words. I just have read them enough to have a “this sound right” or “this sounds wrong” feeling.

So sure, you could drill them and just memorize for every word if it’s な or い. If you want to produce correct output fast, that’s probably the way, but I think that’s boring.

I would either let the mistake slide (when it wasn’t a test on whether or not it’s な or い, but another grammar point) or I would look up which one it is during review, if it would be important for me to get it right.

Even if your goal is to be able to talk soon, your time is probably better invested in things like everyday vocab, writing a bunch of sentences and talking (even if it’s just to yourself).

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#6

Obligatory best Japanese verb explanation:

Hope it helps.

1 Like
#7

It’s okay to check whether verbs you don’t know are う or る verbs, or to undo an answer that was conjugated wrong because you didn’t get whether it was う or る correct.

Do enough immersion, and it will be hard to get it wrong later on. Even so, it’s also OK to let it be wrong and use this as a tool to learn more verbs.

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#8

I agree with the reading advice from others for OP.

I’m from Germany and I have a lot of international friends. Many are doing good improving their German capabilities but lack with the hardest parts of German which are verbs and our complicated article system (male, female, neutrum). I’m in my thirties and someone who can’t speak German properly just recently lectured me (they were right) that there are actual rules why the moon is male and not female like in Spanish. I told them that I observed that German children in primary school also use a lot of wrong articles but they fix it with time (some german people don’t and they sound really stupid in German). My conclusion is, that the kids are just reading a lot (I mean you have to if you want to go through junior and senior high school). Our language is too complex that you could rationally find the right forms in the right time, also we have too many exceptions to the rule. Just treat Japanese like if it were German.

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#9

I totally agree with this, and Bunpro has actually already implemented this idea to some extent. In certain reviews (at least in desktop mode, not sure about mobile), you can click on the verb to reveal whether it is ichidan or godan:

Screenshot 2025-09-15 at 6.04.24 PM
Screenshot 2025-09-15 at 6.04.24 PM1888×630 53.5 KB

However, this isn’t the case for all reviews that require verb conjugation, and I don’t know why. Maybe this feature is only enabled for certain verbs, or for certain grammar points? Either way, I think it’s a really nice feature and that it should be implemented across the board as you suggest.

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#10

Thank you all for the suggestions! I’ll probably revisit this thread in the future to explore some of them further.

For now I think I’m just going to assume verbs ending in -ru and adjectives ending in -i are “the default choice”, and conjugate accordingly. And then if my answer is wrong because of that detail only, I’ll fix it, accept it as correct, and try to file that verb away in my brain as an exception.

#11

I noticed today that when I incorrectly conjugated a Godan verb ending in ru as if it was an Ichidan verb, I got a nice orange warning saying (heavily paraphrased) “hey stupid, that’s a Godan verb”.

Very very nice update if it is new. And it mostly solves my issue above.