I've been studying these for quite a while and I always mix them up, there is just no way I can separate them, anyone having trouble too? tricks?

冷やす
冷える
冷める
冷ます
凍る
凍える

The trick is exposure, just like everything else. See the words used and you realize the nuances. The only short-cut is reading J-J dictionaries, but that will never give the same understanding as pure exposure will.

冷やす
To make something cold/cool.

冷える
To become cool/cold.

冷める
To lose heat and become cool/cold.

冷ます
To make something that was hot cool/cold.

凍る
To become frozen.

凍える
For your body to become cold, and losing feeling and free movement.

Just to make some observations, ~える・る verbs are intransitive (so use が) and describe the action happening, while ~やす・ます verbs are transitive (take を) and involve someone/something actually making this happen.

For kanji I am having trouble distinguishing from others with similar meanings, I create private lists on smart.fm and use as many of the Cerego sentences with audio as I can find.

Musashi Wrote:I've been studying these for quite a while and I always mix them up, there is just no way I can separate them, anyone having trouble too? tricks?

冷やす
冷える
冷める
冷ます
凍る
凍える

They are classified in my mind this way:

Group 1: 冷やす 冷える <------ cold
Group 2: 冷ます 冷める <------ not hot
Group 3: 凍る <------ verb version of 氷 (こおり), i.e., "turn into ice"
Group 4: 凍える <----- feeling, state of mind
↑ ↑
| |
make X become X

Does this make sense? Words in the left column are used when you cool something down, and words in the right column are used when something cools down.

Left column is transitive, right column is intransitive.

Wow, thanks for the tips みんなざん. I guess Tobberoth is right, I mean, I know the meaning of the words, I just mix them all up always, so I guess exposure will really get it stick what is what.

Thanks Magamo for your little graph, I copied it on a piece of paper

Some examples I have.

冷蔵庫にビールが冷やしてあります。もう冷えているとおもいます。
冷たいコーヒーはおいしいですが、冷めたコーヒーはおいしくないです。
北京（ペキン）では、冬になると、道ちが凍ります。体も凍えます。

Quick question: in the が冷やしてあります, does it take が because of the てあります?

vosmiura Wrote:Quick question: in the が冷やしてあります, does it take が because of the てあります?

I'd say yes. It's like 窓が開いてあります。

Glad to know the table could help you, Musashi. Oh, and one more tip. To me, it's kind of strange to mix up 凍る with others because it's clearly different from others in my mind. When I was a kid, I believed 氷 (こおり, noun) and 凍る (こおる, verb) were like 怒り (いかり, noun) and 怒る (いかる, verb). I mean,

anger いか「り」
get angry いか「る」

ice こお「り」
get ice-ish こお「る」

There are a lot of pairs like these: 締まり-締まる, くすぐり-くすぐる etc. So when I found 氷る isn't standard, I was like, "wtf. こおる is こお＋る, right? It means get こおり-ish, right?? Why can't I write it as 氷る?!" Actually 凍る is sometimes written as 氷る.

vosmiura Wrote:Some examples I have.

冷蔵庫にビールが冷やしてあります。もう冷えているとおもいます。
冷たいコーヒーはおいしいですが、冷めたコーヒーはおいしくないです。
北京（ペキン）では、冬になると、道ちが凍ります。体も凍えます。

Quick question: in the が冷やしてあります, does it take が because of the てあります?

You can leave out が, but it could sound a little informal. Also, sometimes neither は nor が sounds right depending on context. If that's the case, you must omit が/は.

By the way, ち in 道ちが凍ります isn't necessary so it should read 道が凍ります.

Tobberoth Wrote:I'd say yes. It's like 窓が開いてあります。

I don't say it's wrong because it makes sense, but I think 窓が開いています or 窓が開けてあります is better. If your teacher is an assh..., excellent teacher, s/he might say it's grammatically wrong. I'm guessing it can't be the right answer in a standardized test like JLPT.

magamo Wrote:So when I found 氷る isn't standard, I was like, "wtf. こおる is こお＋る, right? It means get こおり-ish, right?? Why can't I write it as 氷る?!" Actually 凍る is sometimes written as 氷る.

That was a neat handy tip! I think that 氷る/凍る trick is staying

magamo Wrote:

Tobberoth Wrote:I'd say yes. It's like 窓が開いてあります。

I don't say it's wrong because it makes sense, but I think 窓が開いています or 窓が開けてあります is better. If your teacher is an assh..., excellent teacher, s/he might say it's grammatically wrong. I'm guessing it can't be the right answer in a standardized test like JLPT.

No, you're completely right, I was being sloppy. I meant 開けてあります。