Honorific verbs. 調べる

So im currently stuck at 調べる and its conjugation with the honorific verbs. So based on the conjugation rule (お~になる)it would be おしらべりになる、but somehow i hear お調べになる。which is quite odd i think. So have i gotten so bad at listening and it is おしらべりになる or is it irregular and お調べになる.

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調(しら)べる is an ichidan verb, so its stem is 調(しら)べ. Following the regular conjugation rule of お~になる you then get お調(しら)べになる. If it were a godan verb it would have been お調(しら)べりになる.

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Thank you so much. Is there any website where i can see whether its ichidan or godan because it confused me the most that for 座る it becomes お座りになる aswell.

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Jisho.com the online dictionary.

Usually verbs which have kanji + a dangling る are godan and ones with more kana after the kanji are ichidan, but it’s not a foolproof distinction so practice a couple of ichidan and godan verb conjugations until you get a feel for it. After, you’ll be able to spot which is which almost instantly.

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Most dictionaries should list whether or not a verb is ichidan or godan for verbs ending in る. I tend to use jisho.org if I want Japanese to English translations, and it lists whether a verb is ichidan or godan.

Verbs ending in ~eru like 調(しら)べる are nearly always ichidan though, and verbs not ending in ~eru or ~iru like (すわ)る can never be ichidan, so that’s a way you can differentiate them a bit more easily. It’s still a good idea to look it up if you’re unsure though :grin:

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Only if they end in -iru or -eru.

If not, they’re always godan.

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thank you guys, youve really helped me out with my problem.

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jisho.org also has a useful feature. If you click the “Show inflections” link it’ll show various conjugations for the item.

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Most dictionaries should list whether it’s ichidan or godan regardless of whether it ends in る or not. For example, the goo.ne definition for 飲む includes the line [動マ五(四)] - this means it’s a ま-line 五段 verb (and it used to be 四段, back before the great reform).

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Yeah, I think the point was you can tell without a dictionary if it doesn’t have a る.

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I never use this feature, but I just realized it doesn’t have the 連用形 which I feel like is pretty important. Interesting

That’s because jisho is showing the inflections/conjugations from an English-learning perspective. (You effectively get the 連用形 from the ます form, but still it’s not explicit.) From the Japanese perspective of course, there are fewer inflections and then auxiliary verbs/adjectives are added from there.

But English learners still have to learn the renyoukei…

Renyoukei being for instance the 知り in 知り合う?

I’ll be honest, it would’ve been somewhat useful to learn that explicitly as being a thing, and to see an explanation of what it does (especially with some auxiliary verbs like 込む). I kinda made the connections myself at this point, but still.

Right, but unfortunately it’s often not taught that way in English textbooks. Textbooks will often teach ます form and then refer to the 連用形 as the ます stem. So learners are somewhat conditioned to look at the ます form to find the 連用形.

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Yeah that’s renyoukei, but I was more referring to it just by itself like

魔女は気まぐれに現れ、その絶大な魔力をて災いを呼び、消えうせる。数百年もの長きにわたる畏れと災厄の象徴だ。
中でも最も強大な力を持つとされる魔女が、『青き月の魔女』で、彼女はどこの国にも属さぬ荒野に青い塔を建て、その最上階に棲んでいる。

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Given the amount of times people ask about “why does this sentence where I’m expecting a て form have a ます stem instead”, I don’t think textbooks are really teaching it much. Honestly, I’m pretty sure I picked it up from just consuming things as well.

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