19395
What is difference between 変わり and 変える ? 変える means "to change". Maybe 変わり is
just a noun? Or maybe there is some grammar rule?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-05T08:56:36.837
19384
2014-11-06T06:41:37.897
7045
question
grammar
Difference between 変{か}わり and 変{か}える
First, let's change 変わり to 変わる, so we have two verbs. 変わる is an intransitive
verb. It means "to change" in the sense of "become different": the subject of
the verb is what's being changed. In contrast, 変える is transitive. It means "to
change" in the sense of "amend": the subject of the verb is causing the
change, and the object of the verb is the thing being changed.

It's the same as the difference between a witch changing into a cat, and a
witch changing _you_ into a cat. The first of those is 変わる, and the second is
変える. Japanese has lots of instransitive/causative pairs like this, where the
kanji is/are the same, and the rest of the word distinguishes which is which.
They can be tricky for native English speakers because we usually use the same
word with both meanings (like "change") and use grammatical context (is there
a direct object) to figure out whether it's transitive or intransitive. In
Japanese, writing that way gives you nonsense sentences.

Often with る verbs, replacing the る with り makes the verb into a noun. 変わり is
**a** change, in the sense of an alteration or difference. There's no
corresponding noun 変えり, though.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-05T09:34:26.747
19385
2014-11-05T09:34:26.747
3625
19384
answer
Japanese has a number of morphologically related transitive-intransitive
pairs. The pair of verbs you've discovered, 変わる and 変える, belongs to the
largest group, **_-ar_** (intransitive) and **_-e_** (transitive):

```

      　**Intransitive**　　　　　　　　　　　　　**Transitive**
    
    　  あ **が** る　ag- **ar** -u　  _'rise'_　 　　　　　　あ **げ** る　ag- **e** -ru　  _'raise'_
    　  集 **ま** る　atum- **ar** -u　_'gather'_　　　　　 　集 **め** る　atum- **e** -ru　_'gather'_
    　  溜 **ま** る　tam- **ar** -u 　_'accumulate'_　 　　　溜 **め** る　tam- **e** -ru　 _'accumulate'_
    　  止 **ま** る　tom- **ar** -u 　_'stop'_　　　　　　　 止 **め** る　tom- **e** -ru 　_'stop'_
    
```

The romanized versions reflect the actual morphology better than the versions
in kana and kanji, but you'll need to recognize the distinction in Japanese
spelling, since Japanese isn't usually romanized.

In this case, the root is _kaw-_ , so we end up with the following pair:

```

    　  変 **わ** る　kaw- **ar** -u 　_'change'_　　　　　　 変 **え** る　ka(w)- **e** -ru 　_'change'_
    
```

In Modern Japanese, /w/ drops out before vowels other than /a/, so we're left
with _kaeru_ rather than _*kaweru_. Historically, however, this root was
_kap-_ , and we can see the etymological presence of the original consonant
_p_ in both words in the older spellings 変はる and 変へる.

Note that in each **_-ar_** / **_-e_** pair, the intransitive verb is a
**consonant-stem verb** ending with _r-_ , while the corresponding transitive
verb is a **vowel-stem verb** ending with _e-_. Consonant- and vowel-stem
verbs may be called by another name in your textbook; they're called 五段（ごだん）
and 一段（いちだん） in Japanese, and in books for learners they are sometimes called
" _-u_ verbs and _-ru_ verbs" or "Group I Verbs and Group II Verbs".

For more information about transitive-intransitive pairs, see Shibatani's 1990
book, _The Languages of Japan_ , pages 235-237. (The chart above is based on
the one on page 236.)

* * *

The infinitive form of a verb, called the 連用形（れんようけい） in Japanese, is formed
by adding _-i_ to consonant-stem verbs and adding nothing at all to vowel-stem
verbs:

```

    　　変わ **る**　kawar- **u** 　→　　変わ **り**　kawar- **i**  
    　　変え **る**　  kae- **ru**　 →　　変え ****　  kae- ****
```

This form can be used like a noun, but it has lots of other uses. For example,
it's the form that you add the polite auxiliary 〜ます to:

```

    　　変わ **る**　kawar- **u** 　→　　変わ **ります**　kawar- **i** - **masu**  
    　　変え **る**　  kae- **ru**　 →　　変 **えます**　　  kae- **** - **masu**
    
```

For more information about this form, see your textbook. Besides the names
given above, it may also be called the continuative form (a translation of the
Japanese name), the "Vmasu stem", or sometimes just "the stem". Unfortunately,
different people use a lot of different names for the same things.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-06T03:27:40.790
19395
2014-11-06T06:41:37.897
2014-11-06T06:41:37.897
19384
answer