Something that quickly trains me on conjugations?

[aphextwin]

I'm looking for an easy way to re-wire my mind towards conjugations so that they become second nature. Anyone have any ideas?

Ideally, it would be some quiz/trainer/game that selects from maybe 20 of the most basic verbs and then randomly asks me for a conjugation, which I then input.

For example:

Nomu, Past Progressive Negative Polite = _______ ?
Iku, Causative Positive Plain = _______ ?

Okay, you get the point. I think by going through the same 20 basic verbs or so in all their variations, maybe an hour or two a day, I'd soon be able to quickly form words on the spot. If something exists for adjectives, too, that would be an extra but not necessary. I already tried searching and the closest idea I can find to this is to manually input the data into Anki or something, but that would be really time consuming. Thanks.


Edit: If nothing exists, what is your favorite method? I could just read a lot of sentences or listen to lots of speech, but I want something that will really sear the patterns into my brain lol. I'm guessing a trainer would be best.

[MMM]

I know it isn't as sexy, but making yourself flashcards is the best way to get these down.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by aphextwin

I'm looking for an easy way to re-wire my mind towards conjugations so that they become second nature. Anyone have any ideas?

Ideally, it would be some quiz/trainer/game that selects from maybe 20 of the most basic verbs and then randomly asks me for a conjugation, which I then input.

For example:

Nomu, Past Progressive Negative Polite = _______ ?
Iku, Causative Positive Plain = _______ ?

Okay, you get the point. I think by going through the same 20 basic verbs or so in all their variations, maybe an hour or two a day, I'd soon be able to quickly form words on the spot. If something exists for adjectives, too, that would be an extra but not necessary. I already tried searching and the closest idea I can find to this is to manually input the data into Anki or something, but that would be really time consuming. Thanks.


Edit: If nothing exists, what is your favorite method? I could just read a lot of sentences or listen to lots of speech, but I want something that will really sear the patterns into my brain lol. I'm guessing a trainer would be best.

Your thinking is flawed. You do not want to read "what is たべる in negative past polite form" because this will force you to actually use English to comprehend the meaning of "negative past polite" and then think about "what is polite?" "what is negative?" etc.

What you want is to just try and say random things to yourself in Japanese. Or take things in present/past and immediately convert it to past/present in your head.

This will force you to do things naturally and while abandoning English.

[BenBullock]

Originally Posted by aphextwin

I'm looking for an easy way to re-wire my mind towards conjugations so that they become second nature. Anyone have any ideas?

Ideally, it would be some quiz/trainer/game that selects from maybe 20 of the most basic verbs and then randomly asks me for a conjugation, which I then input.

For example:

Nomu, Past Progressive Negative Polite = _______ ?
Iku, Causative Positive Plain = _______ ?

Well I suppose you could use something like A Japanese Conjugation Builder and try to guess what it outputs before pressing the button.

[Sashimister]

Originally Posted by aphextwin

For example:

Nomu, Past Progressive Negative Polite = _______ ?
Iku, Causative Positive Plain = _______ ?

If you start conjugating verbs or forming sentences before you can abandon romaji, the chances are that you will remain a romaji-user for a long time to come because you will be hooked on using romaji before you know it.

Think everything in terms of "syllables" instead of "consonants and vowels". That's what we, Japanese speakers, do.

[chryuop]

Why you want to learn everything immediately? Why not going one step at the time?
I faced first present (well, more likely I would say dictionary form since it is not present). Then I passed to the polite. From there I passed to past, then polite past...and I really didn't learn it in one day.
I am not sure if in Japan they learn like this, but if you start learning by heart 行くー行かないー行ったー行ってー行けるー行こう and so on what would you obtain?
You know when to use them and how? I tell you from now, only when you will reach the ーて form, it will take a lifetime before you can go to the next part of grammar. It is not not enough to study a conjugation and know what it translates to. If I told you that 読んでいる means "subject am/is/are reading" and then I write "死んでいる" you would translate it as "subject am/is/are dying". But are they really the same thing even though they have the same conjugation?

Hee hee, I love the "duration" and "temporary" (sorry, not sure how they are divided in English textbooks) verbs and how the behave differently. They are the plain example of how Japanese can be hard....and the main reason why I will never be able to speak Japanese, but only write it. It take me 10 minutes only to decide the correct form to use with each verb