90368
I'm at a point where I keep encountering new compound verbs and I'm not sure
how I should approach them to study. Is there a list or category of "main"
compound suffixes (like 続ける, 始める, etc.) that carries the same meaning for
every compound? What are the rules for making compound verbs (if there are
any)?
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2021-09-16T15:39:52.703
90363
2021-09-17T01:33:30.600
45176
question
compounds
How to approach compound verbs?
There are two types of compound verbs: _syntactic_ and _lexical_.

According to [Compound Verb Lexicon](https://db4.ninjal.ac.jp/vvlexicon/en/),
there are 30 syntactic compound verbs in Japanese. You can find the full list
in the link (Click "Syntactic and Lexical Compound Verbs" on the left pane).
続ける and 始める belong to this category, so their meanings are straightforward
regardless of what comes as the first verb. The meanings of most syntactic
compound verbs are related to starting, ending, continuing, repeating, etc.

On the other hand, there are also thousands of lexical compound verbs, and it
takes time to master them. They are called _lexical_ because they are
unpredictable and there is no clear rule (although there are weak tendencies
which you can gradually notice). Basically you have to remember each
combination one by one.
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2021-09-17T01:33:30.600
90368
2021-09-17T01:33:30.600
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90363
answer