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I am quite confused as to how "見る" has suddenly changed into another word,
albeit similar meaning when you do this: "見な."

My question is, how has the "na" appeared and the "ru" disappear?
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2014-01-18T15:40:28.110
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2014-01-20T06:11:09.917
2014-01-20T06:11:09.917
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question
verbs
What are the rules for verb bases(?)
見な is a shortened form of 見なさい, which, as you probably know, is form from the
ます-stem + なさい.

These shortened forms (見な, 食べな, 帰りな, ...) are only used in spoken language.
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2014-01-18T16:11:18.447
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2014-01-18T16:11:18.447
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This な, expressing an order, can be thought of as coming from a shortened
version of なさい:

> 見なさい！ → 見な！

It attaches to the 連用形 of a verb, which is the same form 〜ます attaches to:

> 見 + ます ＝ 見ます  
>  見 + な ＝ 見な
>
> 動き + ます ＝ 動きます  
>  動き + な ＝ 動きな

It is easily confused with another な, which expresses an order _not_ to do
something; this other な attaches to the 終止形, which is the plain form of a verb
you find in a dictionary:

> 動く _to move_  
>  動くな！ Don't move!

Look at the difference between the two な forms:

> 見な！ Look!  
>  見るな！ Don't look!
>
> 動きな！ Move!  
>  動くな！ Don't move!

If you don't understand why these verbs conjugate differently, you'll need to
read in your textbook about the basic two types of verbs. (These are called by
various names, including "Type 1 and 2", "vowel and consonant stem" and
一段動詞・五段動詞.)
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2014-01-18T16:12:29.410
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2014-01-18T16:25:20.260
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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answer