Lesson 21 of 40
Vocabulary Sprint w03 — what happens, and what you do
about 12 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Name the partner of a verb you are given, and say which one takes を.
- Tell 建てる from 立てる, which sound identical.
Words this lesson teaches
- 増える
- increases, grows in number — partner 増やす
- 残る
- is left over, remains — partner 残す
- 集める
- collects, gathers something — partner 集まる, which no lesson teaches
- 続く
- goes on, continues — partner 続ける, which the story has used but no lesson teaches
- 決まる
- is settled, gets decided — partner 決める
- 下げる
- lowers something; clears a table — partner 下がる
- 下りる
- goes down — of stairs and slopes; 降りる, same reading, is the one for vehicles
- 止める
- stops something, parks it — partner 止まる, which the N5 sprint v13 teaches
- 建てる
- builds — only of buildings; same sound as 立てる
- 立てる
- stands something up; makes a plan — partner 立つ
- 掛ける
- hangs something on a hook — the same かける as かけます, to phone
- 見つかる
- turns up, is found — partner 見つける
- 冷える
- goes cold, cools down — partner 冷やす
- 焼ける
- bakes, burns, is grilled — partner 焼く
- 揺れる
- shakes, sways — the verb every earthquake report uses
- 回る
- turns, goes round — partner 回す
- 光る
- shines, glints
- 進む
- advances, makes progress — partner 進める
- 戻る
- goes back, returns — partner 戻す
- 向かう
- heads towards, faces — takes に for the destination
What it explains
The intransitive one is the one you use more
It sounds backwards, and it is not. Most sentences a learner needs are about states of the world rather than their own doing: the keys turned up, the rain went on for three days, the time has been settled, the soup went cold. Every one of those is the が verb. The を verb is for the sentences where you are the one acting, and there are fewer of them in a day than you would expect.
下りる and 降りる, 掛ける and かける
下りる is going down something — stairs, a hill. 降りる is getting off something — a train, a bus. Both are おりる, and neither is taught by a lesson yet: 下りる is on this list and 降りる is still in the N5 gap. 掛ける is hanging a coat, and it is the same word as the かける in 電話を かけます and 時間が かかります: one verb meaning roughly to set something across a gap. Japanese has fewer verbs than it looks and asks each to do more.
The scene itself is in the app.
Lesson one of this track is free to read in full. From lesson two on, the story, the audio and the review are part of a free account.