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Hiragana Chart Let's start off with that. The chart is organized very well. It's a beatiful contraption, just like the Periodic Table of Elements, which was also designed to be amizingly full of information.

As OB pointed out, all dictionary form verbs end in an 'u' sound. When dealing with Group 1 verbs, which is the largest of all the groups, you simply look at the chart, and move the 'u' sound up so that it becomes an 'i' sound. Then add 'masu'. He already explained that, but I find it easiest to think of it in terms of the chart. I'm sure I'll add more about the chart later, since it so one of my favorite things about learning Japanese (beginner and intermediate Japanese make more sense with it)





sweatdrop ninja
The first quote there is a very common half truth that Japanese teachers say to make things easier on beginners. I'm not complaining though, I know that everything I learned in General Chemistry is not really accurate. You just have to know how to relearn it as you go along.

The reason why I say that is this: All group 2 verbs end in 'eru'/'iru.' This is true. But not all verbs ending in 'eru'/'iru' are Group 2 verbs. It's important to make that distinction. Also, akeru (開ける to open) is group 2. It stays firmly in that group.

Hairu 入る to enter
Kaeru　帰る to return (home)
Kiru　切る to cut
Shaberu　喋る to speak, chatter
And others　その他

Really, the list is longer, but those are the ones I can think of off hand. All of them break the elementary rule of Group 2 verbs. But they're not 'irregular.' They are perfectly normal verbs, they just get confused for the wrong group. So they're not Group 2 or Irregular? That means they've got to be Group 1. Thus, you go back to step 1.

Hairu-> hairimasu　入る　→　入ります
Kaeru -> kaerimasu　帰る　→　帰ります
Kiru -> kirimasu　切る　→　切ります
Shaberu -> shaberimasu　喋る　→　喋ります

Now, I know people are going to start whining about "how do we know whether or not it's a Group 2 verb?" You don't. Though odds are it is Group 2. But there are only a handful of Group 2 verbs you need to know in basic Japanese. And very few non-Group 2 verbs like the ones I listed. So just ask if you're not sure. Odds are most text books will have it in -masu form somewhere. Just compare the dictionary form and the -masu form.

Hope I'm being clear here.

A little more on "irregular verbs".

Like Kami-kun said, kaeru, hairu, and akeru are not technically irregular verbs. Why? Not sure. I can ask and look it up before I go back to the States next week (oh the sadness!).

HOWEVER, suru and kuru ARE irregular verbs. The reason being, their form changes unlike any other verbs. The mora (syllable/sound/character/kana/whatever you wanna translate it as) before the last mora changes. No other verbs do that. Think about it...

suru -> shimasu
kuru -> kimasu
nomu -> nomimasu
miru -> mimasu

In your group one verbs, the ending mora (in this case "mu" in "nomu") goes up one sound to the "i" sound and "masu" is then added.
In your group two verbs, the ending mora is completely dropped and "masu" is added.
HOWEVER, suru and kuru completely break those rules by having the mora before the last mora change, THEN add "masu". If "suru" and "kuru" were conjugated as group one verbs are, they would be "surimasu" and "kurimasu". If they were conjugated as group two verbs, then they would be "sumasu" and "kumasu". However, they are neither of those. This is what makes those two "irregular"

I hope that made sense ^^;;


This is basically like saying that all squares are rectangles/quadrangles but not all rectangles/quardangles are squares...For beginners it's a good way to help figure out which verbs are conjugated which way, but once you get to the verbs that look like group two verbs but are actually group one verbs, it kinda complicates things ^^;;;

I reserve this post for making a list of some Group 2 verbs and Irregular verbs and to straighten things out, I might take a photo of 2 charts in my text book and post them up here as well, because I know what you guys are talking about and I'm almost confused lol. There are so few group 2 verbs in the Japanese dictionary you can just remember which are which (or so my teacher said). The pictures might make it easier to understand. Pictures solve everything ^^ well they'll solve everything so long as people look at them while reading the notes Origamiboxers and the others put up xp

EDIT: Actually origamiboxers, do you mind if I edit the charts into your posts? It'd save scrolling

I think iku [ to go ] is also a bit irregular. I mean, usually verbs that have a basic form ending in -KU have a te-form and short past form ending in -ITE and -ITA.
But:
Iku - ikimasu - ikanai - itte - itta