Can someone explain the '別れる' explanation to me?

I keep re-learning and re-forgetting this one, maybe because I don’t understand the mnemonic that WaniKani is using to explain it. Here’s WK’s description:

“Remember the word 分ける? That word means “to separate” too. The reading is similar, though not the same, but we can at least use it as a jumping off point. We go from わける to わかれる. It’s like we’ve “separated” the け and the る and combined them in the middle. け, making a かれ, which gets you to わかれる.”

I genuinely don’t have any idea what this means! The bolded part in particular, I keep reading it over & over and my brain can’t parse it. Is it wordplay? Help!

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Understandable. It’s an odd one to differentiate. More-or-less, if you’re going off of the mnemonic WK is giving, then yes it is a form of wordplay.

Try saying just the ける portion out loud in a slow, stretched out manner. As you say it, you’ll start to hear the かれ sound. The “e” of the け will start to be approaching an “a” sound. And same for the respective る sound. Hopefully this helps?

If you can’t find a suitable way, and it continues being a leech. Utilize the self-study script to drill it (plus other leeches you may have) a few times during the week.

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You’re not the only one :joy:

I read it around 10 times and still don’t get it. As an alternative, I would suggest just memorizing this one. It’s a useful verb. Also, good idea to differentiate it from 分ける, because they have slightly different uses. You can 別れる with your partner/spouse, but you can’t 分ける with them :smiley: .

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Yeah, this one was tricky for me. I made the new mnemonic of when you break up/separate, you “walk away” (wa-ka-re…ru). There is still room to confuse the slight difference in meaning from 分ける, but it at least helped me with remembering how to say 別れる. :relaxed:

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Okay that’s pretty good, I’m stealing it!

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WELCOME to the community!!! (even if you’re already on level 24… welcome anyways!!!) :partying_face: :partying_face:

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I don’t know I just tried to figure it out and I have no clue at all what they’re trying to say.
I skip almost all the mnemonics because they just kind of seem to be stupid gibberish. Why don’t they have explanations instead of the ramblings of the mad

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I think it only makes sense in romaji.
わける → wakeru
わかれる → wakareru

See, the k and the e were separated. At least, I think that’s what they were going for. It’s still a pretty stupid mnemonic though.

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Aye, that’s my take-away too. But yeah, trying to describe it without using the romaji is a bit daft (and why involve the る as well?).

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That’s totally it! NOW it makes sense, still silly though

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