下がる 下げる 止まる 止める 上げる etc

Japanese Language Questions
1

How do you differentiate them? I’ve been having problems with these words. I keep mixing them up…
is there a trick or some sort to remember? ×_× cramming doesnt seem to work

2

Edit - sorry, I hit the reply button before I’d finished my ramble!!

I’m still mucking up 下がる and 下げる
I do have a little bit of a thing that is starting to work though.
To begin differentiating between up and down my mnemonic is:
下 - さ- sa - saggy - down
上 - あ - a - up
The middle bit is where I always got caught up.
上がる - が - ga - gas rises = to rise = intransitive = you can’t ‘rise’ a thing
Once I had that in my head it was easy.
Take the same approach to 下がる
下がる - intransitive therefore something is getting lowered.

3

Thank you, I don’t have problems with differentiating up and down, it’s more like these
(…)がる, (…)げる and (…)まる (…)める giving me trouble >~< (if it makes sense)

4

Do you know the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs?

5

I read a memory hint somewhere:
上がる to rise (i in rise sounds like a in か)
上げる to raise (ai in raise sounds like e in け)

6

There’re so called transitive-intransitive pairs of verbs. There is a pattern to them.
For example, verbs with A sound in the ending part tend to be intransitive (e.g. water level rises). Verbs with E tend to be intransitive (e.g. I raise my hand). There are other sound pairs too.

This article might help:

A reference for verb pairs:
http://nihongo.monash.edu/ti_list.html

7

@d-hermit I heard of it but haven’t looked into it yet, I’m gonna do it now! Thank you so much for the article too TvT
@esutasan o wow It’s actually really nice, thank you :>

8
  1. Say 上がる
  2. Stand up.
  3. Say 上げる
  4. Raise your right hand.
  5. Say 下がる
  6. Sit down.
  7. Say 下げる
  8. Lower your right hand.
    Repeat this a few times and it should stick. Feeling silly while doing it will also help it stick. As will saying it in a sing-song voice. Preferably to the tune of Yakko’s World.
9

I used to have a lot of trouble with this until I found they generally fit in with a small number of rules. I dunno any useful mnemonics, but here’s my notes on transitive vs intransitive so far.

transitive vs intransitive verbs (still looking for counter examples & funky cases)
	~える/~ある pairs - ~える is transitive. Transitive is ichidan, Intransitive is godan
		止める - to stop (something) 止まる - to stop (moving, doing)
		決める - to decide (something) 決まる - to be decided
		閉める - to close (something) 閉まる - to close (yourself), to be closed
		上げる - to raise (something) 上がる - to rise
		下げる - to lower (something) 下がる - to get lower
		代える - to replace (something) 代わる - to replace, to substitute for
		Funky case:
		やめる is transitive (as expected by this rule), but means "to stop doing" much like 止まる and is often used without a direct object
	す/る pairs - す is transitive. Inconsitent w.r.t. instransitive being ichidan/godan
		直す - to fix (something) 直る - to be fixed
		正す - to correct (something)
		出す - to remove (something) 出る - to exit
		写す - to copy, to photograph 写る - to be photgraphed
	~える/~う pairs - ~える is transitive. Transitive is ichidan, intrasitive is godan
		向ける - to turn (something) towards 向く - to face
		入れる - to insert (something) 入る - to enter
		付ける - to attach 付く - to be attached
		育てる - to raise (a child) 育つ - to be raised
		EXCEPTIONS:
		売る - to sell (something) (godan) 売れる - to be sold (ichidan)
	Odd ones
		交ぜる - to mix (something) 交じる - to be mixed
		放す - to release 放れる - to be released
10

You’re a life saver ;; Thank you for sharing your notes