Conjugation's practice software?

deign Member

From: Paris Registered: 2010-02-17 Posts: 31

Hi all,

Actually I am always slow when having to build a verb termination. I would like to improve my flow.

Does anyone know a software to practice verb conjugation? or maybe a excel spreadsheet ?

Lately I discovered "te form" app on itunes store which is really nice. It forces you to answer within the time limitation. The drawback is that it doesn't include every tenses.

wildweathel Member

Registered: 2009-08-04 Posts: 255

To speak to the problem, not the question, if you just listen and read a lot, you get so good at verb conjugations you don't think about them anymore. Unless they're something crazy like
行ってみたくなさそうになったら
which I just pulled out of thin air and you will almost certainly never hear, much less need to say, they'll just be words you instantly understand and produce.

No software needed.

astendra Member

From: Sweden Registered: 2009-07-27 Posts: 350

If you want to launch a focused effort, you could try using cloze deletion for conjugations in anki. Other than that, I have no suggestions, but I'm inclined to agree with the above.

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dusmar84 Member

From: Tokyo Japan Registered: 2009-11-09 Posts: 177

I work in a Junior high school in Japan and one thing that the English teacher does at the beginning of each class is have the kids get out their vocab paper for that unit and read each verb and their conjugations out loud. Example, eat , ate, eaten. Buy, bought, bought. Each time they read a verb and its conjugations they put a dot next to the verb and move on to the next word. Once they have 5 dots they no longer have to practice that word. I know it sounds monotonous but he has them do it within a minute or 2 and the kids are racing to beat their previous bests. Its just a warm-up too. Once you get in the habit of voicing the words and your mouth gets the practice of putting the sounds together youd be surprised how quickly you can produce them in real life. I actually made a spreadsheet of this style in Japanese with about 30 verbs. I can send it over if you'd like.

Oniichan Member

From: 名古屋 Registered: 2009-02-02 Posts: 269

It's the same thing for Japanese class.　

”たべる、たべない、たべた、たべなかった”
”たべて、たべよう、たべれば、たべられる...”

”おいしい、おいしくない、おいしかった、おいしくなかった”

”きれいだ、きれいじゃない、きれいだった、きれいじゃなかった”
etc.

Why not just recite the conjugations of every verb and adjective you study (when reviewing lists, flashcards, whatever) in their plain and polite forms? Do this regularly, and soon you will find that the conjugations do come to mind effortlessly and you can place your focus elsewhere.

thurd Member

From: Poland Registered: 2009-04-07 Posts: 756

I created such thread a while ago and almost everyone was telling me it will get better with practice, they were right But still I'm not satisfied with speed of my progress in this area and thats why I decided to write such app for Android. It will take some time so don't expect it to be out soon, but I'll try my best.

yudantaiteki Member

Registered: 2009-10-03 Posts: 3619

I think some drilling is good; if you leave it up to passive exposure you can pick up bad habits like not paying attention to the difference between the -te forms that have double t's and the ones that don't (i.e. mite vs. itte). I teach students in 4th year Japanese that still have trouble with these. One of the most dangerous assumptions you can make in your long-term Japanese study is that because you can understand something when you read it, it's not necessary for you to practice it for production.

ta12121 Member

From: Canada Registered: 2009-06-02 Posts: 3190

Cloze deletion works well for this one

kainzero Member

From: Los Angeles Registered: 2009-08-31 Posts: 945

i just talk to myself in japanese with sentences i make up in my head in my car on the way to work.

most of the time when i try to speak, i'm slow not because i don't know the conjugation but because i don't really know what i'm trying to say.

getting my thoughts organized in the target language is the key, i think.

i do agree with yudantaiteki in that passive exposure is not enough, but that occasionally you need to go over the rules if you're not solid on it. passive exposure definitely helps though because you develop intuition but often times you'll want to say things that aren't said on TV or write things that aren't written in whatever you read and it becomes important to know what to do.

deign Member

From: Paris Registered: 2010-02-17 Posts: 31

I also believe that passive exposure is not enough...though it can help. What I actually observed is that after practicing with the "t-form" app, I am now instant in producing a verb in t-form. The problem is that there are many other tenses, politeness levels and not only for verbs...

I also think that maybe discussing in japanese helps to memorize the common conjugations...

Anyway from the answers I read, I think I will give a try to a repetitive training (SRS or not ), I'll let you know the results.

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