I’m reviewing Genki, again. I’m working through Lesson 5 and I’m going over verb conjugation. When I first learned this, many many years ago, I used the first edition of Genki and it was more formal. I’m getting so mixed up now with all the なかった @_@
Ahh. Help.
I’d be happy to help as much as I am able to. If you are able to, could you expand on exactly what’s confusing you? Is the adjective conjugation the thing that’s the hassle right now? I’m sure you understand that there are different conjugations for い-adjectives and な-adjectives.
For い-adjectives, you take away the い and then add く (Edit: Sorry this is only for negative. That was unclear). From there it depends on the tense you use. な-adjectives, you just don’t include the な and then once again depends on the case from there.
Overall:
I tried to bold the original part of the adjective.
い-adjectives (おもしろい for example):
Present affirmative - おもしろいです - interesting
Present negative - おもしろくないです - not interesting
Past affirmative - おもしろかったです - was interesting
Past negative - おもしろくなかったです - was not interesting
な-adjectives (しずか for example):
Present affirmative - しずかです - quiet
Present negative - しずかじゃないです - not quiet
Past affirmative - しずかでした - was quiet
Past negative - しずかじゃなかったです - was not quiet
That’s too broad of a statement. There’s no く in 楽しかった.
What do you want help with? 
How verb conjugation works?
Yeah I know. I was correcting it. Glad you pointed it out though.
I’m mixing up verb conjugation with noun conjugation AND mixing up polite forms. I need a way to clarify everything? It feels overwhelming. I do know the difference between い and な and irregular verbs. I think it’s trying to remember past and neg vs positive as well as the different formality. Like, for na- verbs I learned じゃありません but now they say じゃないです and I’m mixing that up with くないです.
I recommend this site Self-study Room | Genki-Online for practicing your conjugation. They also have a “rules” button for each section that may give you a bit more clarity.
EDIT: If you’re feeling overwhelmed, I would suggest going 1 form at a time until you feel like you understand it, then move on to the next one. We can talk all day about the different forms, but I found the easiest way is just to practice doing it.
ありがとうございます！ omg this helps a lot to practice! Thank you!
Also on their site, they act out the dialog scenes from each chapter GENKI Dialogue Videos | Genki-Online
ない at the end of negative verbs is just an auxiliary adjective. That’s why once it’s there its conjugation will look like an adjective.
If that’s confusing, you don’t have to actually think of it that way, but maybe that helps explain why they are similar.
I keep telling myself I’m going to start using http://waniconjugation.co.nf for practice…
Well, that’s cool! Thank you!
I found this phone app super helpful for reviewing and clarifying verb and adjective conjugations: GENKI Conjugation Cards on the App Store
I was just using them! Thank you everyone. I spent last night and I think I clarified everything. I’m moving on to て forms and lesson 6 
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.