覚える
 

Alright, so my book lists 覚える as a る verb, which means that, in forming the plain past tense, you drop る and add た, right? Contrary to that however, everything I read online says the plain past is 覚えった rather than 覚えた. So is 覚える a る verb or an う verb?

From what I have learnt, it is 覚えた. But again, I am just a beginner. :)


覚えます
覚えて
覚える
覚えない
覚えた
覚えなかった

覚える's past tense is most definitely 覚えた. I believe that makes 覚える a class-2 verb? Or something like that. Honestly classifying verbs as う versus る is a framework that should fall away not too long into your language learning. When I learn a new verb I don't ask myself if it is る vs う, I just check out how the past tense conjugates (which I can usually guess).

You must not be reading anything written by a native speaker, then. It's most definitely おぼえた.

Also, the distinction is not るvsう, and I've actually never heard anyone use this as the classification. Do yourself a favor and start calling them いちだん (all stems end with the same vowel) and ごだん (each of the five vowels are used in various verb stems) verbs. Or, alternatively "eru/iru vs u" verbs. Except this still isn't a good term since 帰る ends with "eru" but is not conjugated like 食べる, but rather like とる.

Godan:
stem of 飲む is "nom" plus one of the five vowels:
飲ま-ない（あ）
飲み-ます（い）
飲む（う）
飲め-る（え）
飲も-う（お）

Ichidan:
stem of 食べる is "tabe" always:
食べ-ない（え）
食べ-ます（え）
食べ-る（え）
食べ-られる（え）
食べ-よう（え）

Yeah, that's something that sort of confused me when I started taking formal Japanese classes, because I remembered from what I'd done independently that the classification was more diverse than just those two categories. Could you explain the classes to me though? What makes 覚える class 2?

EDIT: Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the explanation, Kyle.

The only 100% accurate explanation is "because that's how Japanese people speak."

A decent explanation (that has exceptions) is "because it ends in 'eru.'"

I searched on Yahoo Japan for 覚えった just as curiosity since the OP said he has seen it many times. I wonder if there is any regional or dialectal form that uses it, because you find it.

To the OP...USE 覚えた because it is the correct form.
覚えった

Be careful with those search results. I looked at the first two pages and 覚えった is being used:

1. in exclamation.
2. as part of 覚えたって = "even if one learned ~~"
3. by who clearly looks to be a Japanese-learner.

I don't believe this is dialectal at all. At least I've never heard it.

Thank you as always. No I don't trust google or yahoo...I usually use only dictionaries (and I opt for the ones made by Japanese people) and not sources typed by unknown people. But since he said he had seen it used many times I got kinda curious.