Wakaru meaning, its origin and its nai form

Japanese people often use a verb, “wakaru”, in daily conversation. This verb fits well with both formal and casual situations. So learning how to use it would help Japanese learners a lot to improve their conversation skills. In this blog post, I will explain wakaru meaning, its origin, its nai form and other three conjugations. After reading this blog post, you will have a clear understanding.

Contents

• Starting with wakaru meaning
  • Example 1: typical use of wakaru
• Casual use
• A similar one, wakeru
• The origin of wakaru
• Nai form, wakaranai
  • Example 2: typical use of wakaranai
• Other conjugations
  • Example 3: typical use of wakatta
  • Example 4: typical use of wakarimasu
  • Combination of a ta form and masu form
• Summary

Starting with wakaru meaning

First, let’s start with wakaru meaning.

• wakaru – 分かる (わかる) : a verb to mean ‘to see’, ‘to understand’, ‘to know’ or ‘to recognize’. Its meaning highly depends on context.

Sometimes, translation of simple and short words could be very difficult. Words used together or context could have a significant effect on meanings of those words. “Wakaru” is typical one. It can mean ‘to see’, ‘to understand’, ‘to recognize’ or some such. Fortunately, however, Japanese people usually use it to mean ‘to see’ or ‘to understand’ in daily conversation. In order to understand its typical use, please take a look at an example below.

Example 1: typical use of wakaru

Before going to explanations, let me check new words used here.

• anata – あなた : a pronoun corresponding to an English pronoun, “you”. Basically both pronouns are used in the same way. But, in Japanese, sometimes this pronoun is used to call a husband. It could sound a bit old fashioned though.
• no – の : a case particle to make a possessive case. Here, the pronoun, “anata”, and “no” form the possessive case, “anata no”, meaning ‘your’.
• iu – 言う (いう) : a verb to mean ‘to say’. This is a plain form of this verb itself.
• koto – 事 (こと) : a noun to mean ‘a thing’ or ‘things’. In addition, Japanese people often put it after a plain formed verb to make its noun phrase. Here, “anata no iu koto” is a kind of noun phrase and translated to “what you say”.
• ga – が : a case particle working as a case maker. Here it helps the noun phrase, “anata no iu koto”, to become the objective case in the sentence.

In the example, “wakaru” is used to mean ‘to understand’. Perhaps the translation could be a bit more casual like “I get it (what you say)”. This is how Japanese people use “wakaru” in daily conversation.

Here, the verb, “iu”, is in the simple present tense, but Japanese people also often use “itteru” which is the present continuous tense of “iu”. In that case, a translation would be “I understand what you’re saying”.

Speaking of the verb tenses, in Japanese, the border between the present tense and future tense is not that clear. Therefore, we need to be careful with the fact that the example sentence, “anata no iu koto ga wakaru”, can also mean ‘I understand what you’re going to say’. It highly depends on context, but due to this fact, sometimes translation mismatches could happen.

Casual use

The verb, “wakaru”, is widely used in daily conversation to mean ‘to see’ or ‘to understand’. Japanese people often use it in formal situations. Sometimes, however, especially young people use it very differently. They use it to express their strong agreement in a casual way. When they find something so relatable to them, they say just “wakaru”. It could correspond to English phrases like “I know the feeling”, “I know how you feel” or perhaps just “I know!”

One thing we need to be careful with is that Japanese young people often elongate the last vowel of “wakaru” in casual situations. So it sounds like “wakarū” rather than “wakaru”. Mastering this pronunciation would be one step to become a master of Japanese casual conversation. As long as you can use it correctly, you can express your strong agreement like Japanese teens. However, the elongated pronunciation is suitable only for casual situations. In reality, even Japanese young people do not elongate the last vowel in formal situations.

This is almost all about the verb, “wakaru”. There is nothing special really, you may think. It’s true. This is just a simple verb, but sometimes can make Japanese learners confused.

A similar one, wakeru

In Japanese, unfortunately, there is a very similar verb, “wakeru 分ける (わける)”. This is just a simple verb too, but often makes Japanese leaners confused due to its similarity in appearance. Let’s check its meaning.

• wakeru – 分ける (わける) : a verb to mean ‘to split’, ‘to separate’ or ‘to divide’ depending on context.

As you can see here, meanings of both verbs are very different. “Wakaru” can mean ‘to see’, ‘to understand’ or some such. The similar one, “wakeru”, means ‘to split’, ‘to separate’ or ‘to divide’. Now you understand why Japanese learners can get confused. Both verbs look very similar, but have different meanings. However, interestingly, they have the same origin. I believe knowing their origin would lead to a better understanding of them, especially, wakaru meaning. So I will explain it in following paragraphs.

The origin of wakaru

The verb, “wakaru”, and the similar one, “wakeru”, have the same origin. It is said that “wakaru” had been separated from “wakeru” at a certain point of time. Then, a question would arise. Why is wakaru meaning so different? Its original concept helps us to answer this question.

‘To see’ or ‘to understand’ can be considered as ‘to make something clear’. Here, “something” would be a thing or things which have not been clear for you up to the moment you understand them. This idea works well also in English, I think. Let’s develop this idea a bit more. ‘To make something clear’ can be understood as ‘to separate clear things from the rest’. “The rest” here expresses unclear things. As I explained above, “wakaru” means ‘to understand’ and “wakeru” means ‘to separate’. Now you may see how “wakaru” was developed from “wakeru”. At the certain point of time in the past, ‘to understand’ was equal to ‘to separate’ in Japanese.

Hope this story helps you to have a better and clear understanding of these verbs.

Nai form, wakaranai

In daily conversation, a nai form of “wakaru” is also widely used. As far as Japanese learners know it, they can say “I don’t understand” in Japanese. Below is the one.

• wakaranai – 分からない (わからない) : a nai formed verb to mean ‘not to see’, ‘not to understand’ or ‘not to know’.

Again, but this word is very important for Japanese learners. When they don’t understand what others say, definitely they need to say “wakaranai”. Otherwise, they would face a bigger problem or confusion. Below is an example.

Example 2: typical use of wakaranai

Only one difference from the last example is the verb. Now “wakaranai” is used instead.

This example sentence is very helpful, but perhaps too long for beginners. I recommend them to remember just “wakaranai”. Even only the verb part would be enough to mean ‘not to understand’ in daily conversation.

Other conjugations

I will explain other three popular conjugations of “wakaru” in following paragraphs.

Example 3: typical use of wakatta

Here is one new word.

• wakatta – 分かった (わかった) : a ta form, namely, the past tense of the verb, “wakaru”. From the grammatical point of view, this consists of a verb part, “wakat”, and an auxiliary verb, “ta”.

Basically, a ta form is considered as a form for the past tense. Therefore, the ta form, “wakatta”, is translated to ‘understood’. Perhaps a translation could be a bit more casual like “I got it (what you said)”.

Unfortunately, rules for making a ta form are not so simple. So I’m not explaining all of them in detail in this post. I will show you only how to make “wakatta” based on the plain form, “wakaru”. The difference between them we can see visually is “tta” and “ru”. This means we can make “wakatta” by replacing the last hiragana character of the plain form, “ru”, with “tta”.

The next one is a more polite expression.

Example 4: typical use of wakarimasu

Here is a masu form of “wakaru”.

• wakarimasu – 分かります (わかります) : a masu form of the verb, “wakaru”, meaning ‘to see’, ‘to understand’ or such. From the grammatical point of view, it consists of a verb part, “wakari”, and an auxiliary verb, “masu”.

A masu form of verbs normally gives us a polite impression. In fact, “wakarimasu” is much more polite than its plain form, “wakaru”. So, the example Japanese sentence here is considered as a polite expression of the sentence in the example 1.

A masu form of verbs can be made by replacing their last vowel of plain form, “u”, with “imasu”. Actually, the difference between “wakaru” and “wakarimasu” is “u” and “imasu”. Of course, this method does not always work well. But, we can change many verbs to their masu form with it.

Combination of a ta form and masu form

Let’s use a ta form and masu form together.

Here is a ta form of the masu form of “wakaru”. Don’t worry. It’s easy.

• wakari mashi ta – 分かりました (わかりました) : the past tense of the polite expression of “wakaru”. So, its translation is ‘understood’.

To be honest, it’s really hard to show the difference in translation. However, this Japanese sentence is definitely the past tense of the polite expression of the verb, “wakaru”. In principle, a ta form needs to come after a masu form. “Ta”, the auxiliary verb to express the past tense, needs to be used like a suffix of masu form.

Summary

So far, I’ve explained wakaru meaning, its casual use, its similar verb, its nai form and other three conjugations. Let me summarize them as follows.

• wakaru – 分かる (わかる) : a verb to mean ‘to see’, ‘to understand’, ‘to know’ or ‘to recognize’. In casual situations, it’s used to express one’s strong agreement. It has the same origin as “wakeru”. In the past, Japanese people considered ‘to see’ or ‘to understand’ as ‘to separate clear things from the rest’.
• wakeru – 分ける (わける) : a verb to mean ‘to split’, ‘to separate’ or ‘to divide’. It had a big effect on the concept of “wakaru”.
• wakaranai – 分からない (わからない) : a nai formed verb to mean ‘not to see’, ‘not to understand’ or ‘not to know’. Japanese leaners should remember this word in order to say “I don’t understand” in Japanese.
• wakatta – 分かった (わかった) : a ta form, namely, the past tense of the verb, “wakaru”. From the grammatical point of view, this consists of a verb part, “wakat”, and an auxiliary verb, “ta”.
• wakarimasu – 分かります (わかります) : a masu form of the verb, “wakaru”, meaning ‘to see’, ‘to understand’ or such. From the grammatical point of view, it consists of a verb part, “wakari”, and an auxiliary verb, “masu”.
• wakari mashi ta – 分かりました (わかりました) : the past tense of the polite expression of “wakaru”. So, its translation is usually ‘understood’.

This is the very basic of the verb “wakaru” and some related items. Hope my explanations help you to improve your Japanese skills.