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After going through the verb lessons, with Type 1-4, if I understand correctly, for Type 1, the い sound turns into う sound, for Type 2 you just remove the る and you’re set. Then there are Type 3-4 that are exceptions you need to learn… But:
How do you figure out the conjugation from the dictionary form with that? Say… あやまる for instance. It doesn’t even have the い or え sounds in it.
How do you actually figure out the ます form with this “Type 1-4″ system? Hopefully I’m missing something obvious ;) Thanks!
While there are a loose set of rules there’s also a lot of exceptions. The best method is through experience and having as much exposure as possible. Check out this link: http://japanese.about.com/od/grammarlessons/a/031101a.htm
So, something that ends with る but without い or え before the る is considered “Type 1″ right? i.e. あやまる => あやまります?
Frankly, I can never remember which type of verb Koichi’s categories refer to, and I’m fairly sure I learnt “group 1″ and “group 2″ the other way around.
Fortunately, I also learnt it as う-verbs and る-verbs, plus the two irregular verbs する and くる, which are unconfusable, since the defining characteristic is right in the name of the groups. I was never taught anything about ～いる or ～える.
る-verbs always end in る, the trick is in spotting which of the verbs ending in る are actually う-verbs. Like Kanjiman said, you get the feel for it after a while. By now, I can generally intuit which is which, but one trick I’ve developed (which may not be flawless) is to assume it’s a る-verb, then if the resulting conjugation sounds silly, it was probably a う-verb to start with. For example, はじまる -> はじまます sounds kinda silly. Reductio ad absurdum. =P
So yeah, あやまる is a う-verb. Whichever type that happens to be.
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