Quote:
Originally Posted by RobinMask
Thank you very much for the reply, KyleGoetz 
I have to admit to a small bit of confusion, but I was able to follow what you said and make sense of it. Your analogy to English helped me to understand it further, and by the sounds of things it would probably be best to immerse myself in the language and learn by practise/listening, rather than concentrating solely on grammatical rules.
I have to admit there have been a few times I was able to modify the verbs in my textbook accurately, just because I knew it sounded 'right' despite not knowing the rules, but being someone who likes rules and structures it's a pain sometimes not being able to apply solid rules to certain verbs and work them out right away . . .
So iru/eru is one type, kuru/suru the irregular type, and everything else the other regular type? Although that's bearing in mind the many exceptions, such as 'kaerimasu'?
Please pardon the use of romaji, and sorry if I sound really stupid for asking this. I'm doing great with the vocabulary, but I seem to be struggling with the grammatical parts  |
Correct.
In general, iru/eru is one type, kuru/suru is one time, and "everything else" is the other type.
Beyond that are a few, very rare, irregular verbs. irassyaru and kudasaru are the two that immediately jump to mind. And they're not totally irregular; they are only irregular for certain tenses/cases.
For example, aru (to exist) is regular for many tenses (arimasu, atta, arimasita, etc.). However, it is irregular for negative plain (nai rather than aranai).
irassyaru is regular for things like irassyatta, but irregular for irassyaimasu, irassyaimase, irassyaimasita, etc.
Of course, I may be forcing Japanese into a very English-language framework here; it's possible a native Japanese will come in and say "what? aru is definitely regular, what are you doing saying a 'regular' form for its plain negative would be 'aranai'?!" I'm just thinking "regular" would mean "it ends in 'ru' and not 'eru' or 'iru,' so turn the 'ru' into 'ra' and add 'nai,' which is the way we are taught in non-native Japanese classes."