Why is this still wrong

“To rise” is intransitive - something rises on its own.

“To raise” is transitive - someone raises the object.

This is why “to rise” is blacklisted - to help you not get these confused.

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It sounds like they know it’s wrong, and maybe they even understand why it’s a bad idea to add a synonym that isn’t a correct meaning, but they still want to override it and are wondering why they can’t (from a technical perspective).

I mean, I guess they also answered their own question though.

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I imagine that the typo acceptance in this case will alter the meaning to such an extent that it would inhibit the learning of the vocabulary itself, since “to rise” and “to raise” are fundamentally different. They are extremely hard to differentiate when translating to Japanese, though. This is one I’ve struggled with the whole year I’ve been studying vocabulary.

Something that is helping me my second time around is getting the げ and が nailed down. I’ve been using those pronunciations as context clues. For instance, when someone gets (げ) something up, that thing is raised, and when I got (が) up, I was rising. These are still new mnemonic devices for me so I’m not sure I’m even getting them right. I get transitive and intransitive verbs mixed up all the time, and I’m a native English speaker.

I hope this helps!

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But why? Why deliberately make typos? Wouldn’t it be better to learn the correct word and… improve?

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I try that too, but I am here to learn Japanese. I already feel fluent enough in English, but i have to concentrate really hard to make shure my spelling is correct, and that slows down my progress to a speed I am not comfortable with. There are not many words each level that I have a problem with. I sometimes teach English and spanish in a primary school, and will make shure i spell correctly and will study to make shure i don’t make any mistakes in those situations since i am there in a position where those are the languages that are important. :wink:

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I’m afraid I don’t see why deliberately enforcing wrong English would be the way to go if you’re aware of what you’re misspelling. Sure, it might take a bit longer for a couple of times, but you’ll get it right eventually and don’t have to worry anymore. Especially as a teacher I’d strive to be as good as possible as to not “teach” kids wrong stuff. I’d say each to their own, but since it potentially affects others I do have to admit that I think it’s a bit selfish. I don’t want to derail the thread, though. :man_shrugging:

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The thing people have alluded to, but not said explicitly, is that there is already a different vocab item for “to rise”, 上がる.
If you’re using it for 上げる as well, how do you learn which one is is which?

If you’re having difficulty getting the spelling right, using the longer synonym (to raise something) can help, as it’s both forcing you to think of the correct meaning, and it’ll probably accept the spelling mistake.

@okami_edamame There’s a few simple patterns that really made it easier for me to learn the transitive-intransitive pairs:

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And what about adding the words in your own language as synonyms, instead of the english typos?

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If I only do that on some items, it will be hard to remember which words have English and which have Norwegian. I also don’t think translation in two steps is a good idea. Japanese - English - Norwegian makes nuances even harder to see than they already are after just one translation. :smile:

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yay, explorer buddies…

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Yay! :durtle_the_explorer: :sparkles:

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Wouldn’t it be faster to skip the English then since you are going Japanese —> Norse? I think @lamperez has a point here.

English is not my native language but like you, I feel fairly fluent enough on it. Sometimes, however, some WK items stick better for me if I tweak or create a mnemonic that is in my native language and not in English.

Best of luck to you on how you want to move forward! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Part of the way the WaniKani system works is that you also need to prove to WaniKani that you know the Japanese. Yeah, spelling can be hard sometimes, but unfortunately WaniKani needs to be certain that you understand the meaning. Sure, it can let typos through if they’re close enough, but if that typo also happens to be the correct answer to a different item with a different meaning, it needs to say “no, not close enough”. For example, “north” is close enough to “south” to be accepted as a typo, except they’re antonyms.

Perhaps you want to try installing the Double-Check script. It allows to mark any incorrect answer as being correct. But be careful - with great power comes great responsibility. If you just mark every incorrect answer as correct while thinking “oh yeah, I knew that”, then you may as well be using Anki.

We had a guy here a few years ago who was complaining that WaniKani didn’t let him add enough synonyms - he’d added synonyms for spellings of 入院 that ranged from “hsptlztn” to “hposaopijtiln”, and we had to sit him down and point out that perhaps WaniKani isn’t for him…

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Maybe it’s possible to just add Norwegian for the verbs that give you the most trouble? For example, for 上げる you could add “å rekke” and for 上がる you could add “å stige”. However, that might lead to even more confusion, as the only natural example for the “raise” version of “rekke” I can think of is “å rekke opp hånda”, since most of the time “rekke” is used differently (as in “Jeg rekker ikke bussen” or “Jeg er for lav til å rekke taket”). This means that your brain might confuse 上げる for “reach” or something like that.
I can’t really think of a better translation for 上げる in Norwegian though, because any other usable verb might be too close to 上がる, so you might have to just try your best to use the correct spelling as others have suggested!

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What about “å heve” or “å løfte”?

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“Heve” could work, actually! I only think about this word solely in relation to bread, so I didn’t think about it here. :joy: I thought about “å løfte” too, but that might be too specifically tied to the act of lifting something and not necessarily raising it. Could still work, but I wouldn’t use it, as I’m not sure it carries quite the same nuance as 上げる.

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I too thought of “å løfte”, but “å heve” seems like a good translation. Maybe we have a winner? Though personally I would have trouble switching to Norwegian when my brain is already on the English-Japanese track :sweat_smile:

I actually notice it in other settings too, if I’m trying to remember, talk about or explain a japanese word to other people. I always think of the English word, and finding the Norwegian one becomes difficult xD

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Here’s my surefire method for getting these to stick. I’ve never had a problem remembering the difference since.

  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. :wink:

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Alternate thought: balloons filled with helium ガ rise on their own…

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