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KyleGoetz (Offline)
Attorney at Flaw
 
Posts: 2,965
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Texas
03-06-2010, 11:29 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by KyleGoetz View Post
I've never heard of seven bases before.

The only equivalent I can think of in modern Japanese is the 5 levels of go-dan verbs, and that's not something you just explain.

Instead, you should just learn one conjugation at a time. As someone who has attempted to study classical Japanese by just memorizing all the verb endings at once, I have experience learning Japanese both ways, and I recommend just learning, for example, plain non-past form by itself.

Let me brainstorm the verb conjugations I know:
食べる plain non-past
食べたplain past
食べて te-form
食べよう volitional
食べない plain non-past negative
食べられる potential
食べられる passive
食べさせる causative
食べず zu-form
食べます polite non-past
食べまして polite te form
食べませんnegative past polite
食べました past polite
食べろ plain command form
食べぬ nu form
食べないで negative te-form
食べましょう polite volitional

There are probably a couple more. I just am getting yelled at by my fiancée: "You're on that site too long."
I also forgot
食べなさい
and the honorific and humble forms—although 食べる doesn't particularly have "conjugations" for these like, say, 作る, which has:
お作りになる
お作りする
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