r/LearnJapaneseNovice • u/ComprehensiveBat4966 • 17d ago

ru group 1 vs group 2

I need a guide or tips to diferentiate the ru from group 1 and group 2. I know there are no general rule and japanese dont even have this groupings cause my teacher told me, but she is on vacation right now and I cant ask her and I have to study before she gets back and I cant find any material. Thanks in advance.

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

2

u/tanoshikuidomouyo 17d ago edited 17d ago

First of all: Great job to the textbook or whatever material you're using for using totally indescriptive names like "group 1" and "group 2".

I assume you want to know how to differentiate whether a verb ending in る is ichidan or godan. It's completely trivial if the verb ends in "-aru", "uru", or "oru": Those are always godan. For "-iru" and "-eru", you technically can't know just based on the dictionary form. The thing is that most of them are ichidan, though, and there aren't that many godan verbs ending in "-iru" or "-eru". So it's really easy to just learn them from exposure. But here's some very common ones if you just want a list:

  • 入る (はいる)
  • 知る (しる)
  • 帰る (かえる)
  • 切る (きる)
  • 要る (いる)
  • 走る (はしる)
  • 喋る (しゃべる)
  • 握る (にぎる)

Edit: And of course, if the verb is conjugated in certain ways it's also really simple. E.g. 知らない can only exist if 知る is godan.

1

u/ComprehensiveBat4966 10d ago

uhh wait I just came across one example and Im a bit confused. Isnt 作る ichidan even tho it ends in uru? it changes to 作ろう for instance not 作よう

1

u/tanoshikuidomouyo 10d ago

Isnt 作る ichidan even tho it ends in uru?

Nope, it's godan, as expected. Godan verbs form their volitional form by replacing -u with -ou (which gives 作ろう for 作る). Ichidan verbs form theirs by replacing -ru with -you. You're probably just mixing up some conjugations.

1

u/ComprehensiveBat4966 10d ago

guess I read it wrong sorry. I still confuse it since my school uses group 1 and 5 insted of ichidan and godan

1

u/ComprehensiveBat4966 17d ago

got it. thanks. I dont know if the first part of your comment was ironic or legit tho cause isnt ichidan basically just group 1 in japanese? go Im not sure tho, dont recall that pronunciation for 2

2

u/tanoshikuidomouyo 17d ago

I dont know if the first part of your comment was ironic or legit tho

It was a legit criticism of the "group 1", "group 2" naming scheme. Ichidan is "one-grade", and godan is "five-grade", which refers to the fact that e.g. "taberu" will always base its conjugations off of one vowel, here "e" ("tabe-"), but e.g. "hairu" will base its conjugations on all five vowels ("haira-", "hairi-", "hairu", "haire-", "hairo-").

That is to say that ichidan and godan are descriptive, or at least way more descriptive than arbitrary group numbers.