Quote:
Originally Posted by RobinMask
I just wondered if there were any rules to remember what counts as a Regular 1 verb, and what counts as a Regular 2 verb?
Just I've picked up learning Japanese again, and as I was revising my past lessons I came to a section on how to change verbs from their -masu form into their dictionary form and -nai form. I understand the rules fine, but the only issue is if I was given a new piece of vocabulary to learn, how would I know which type of verb it is in order to modify it accordingly?
Sorry if this has been asked before, I did do a search but couldn't find anything relevant :-/
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I can't remember which one is which, so I won't call them 1 and 2 (Japanese don't call them this, either; I think linguists refer to them as 1-step and 5-step verbs, or １段 and ５段).
In general (although there are famous, oft-used exceptions), if it ends in いる／える then it's one type. Everything else except する and くる is the other type.
Now, the most common exception is 帰る (to return). It ends in える but is not that type. It is conjugated as かえります, not かえます.
Other irregular verbs include くださる, which is conjugated as くださいます instead of くださります. But you'll learn these as you go along.
You know only by using and looking at usage. Imagine if you didn't speak English and I taught you "add 'ed' or 'd' to the end of a verb to get past tense." You can see it works for outfox->outfoxed, need->needed. But then you get bed->bed
ded! And even worse, you get eat->
ate (you move the first letter to the end??)! Then bleed->bled (feed->fed, but not heed->hed), etc. You only learn by using and seeing how others use it.
tl;dr version: There's a rule of thumb, but it's not always accurate. Maybe 80-90% of the time it is accurate.