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In Japan, if a Japanese person sees a new verb ending in ru, what would they
do to try and infer if it's a ichidan or godan verb before just looking it up
or asking someone?
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meaning godan-verbs ichidan-verbs
How do Japanese people infer if a verb is a ichidan verb or a godan ending in ru?
I'm sure that when you are growing up and hearing your native language all
around you all the time you never question the form of a verb because you
learn the verb in context, not logically.
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Generally speaking, the rule of thumb is that if it ends in -ru, it's a
ichidan verb. It's not always the case (think of the irregular verbs like
-suru, for an easy example) but it usually works.

For your reference:
[https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/動詞](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8B%95%E8%A9%9E)

Take a look at the table showing types of verbs in 3 日本語の動詞. The description
says 「原形は -ru で終わる」 for ichidan verbs.

So in the example you gave, since it ended with -ru, the automatic reflex
would be to assume that it's an ichidan verb.
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2017-02-06T04:47:29.630
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There's a trend where, if the mora before the る _doesn't_ end in /i/ or /e/,
then it's a godan verb. (Examples below.) Beyond that, it's really just a
matter of exposure -- most of the exception/irregular verbs are also the high-
frequency verbs, so native speakers would already have those down solid. The
remaining ones would tend to follow the pattern.

Some godan verbs (dictionary form not ending in -iru or -eru):

> -aru: [割]{わ}る → [割]{わ}ります [狩]{か}る → [狩]{か}ります
>
> -uru: [釣]{つ}る → [釣]{つ}ります [降]{ふ}る → [降]{ふ}ります
>
> -oru: [取]{と}る → [取]{と}ります [凍]{こお}る → [凍]{こお}ります

Verbs ending with -iru or -eru are more of a mixed bag:

> [居]{い}る → [居]{い}ます
>
> [要]{い}る → [要]{い}ります
>
> [見]{み}る → [見]{み}ます
>
> [切]{き}る → [切]{き}ります
>
> [蹴]{け}る → [蹴]{け}ります
>
> [得]{え}る → [得]{え}ます
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When native Japanese speakers encounter or coin new verbs, such verbs are
**assumed to be godan verbs** , despite the fact that many ordinary verbs that
end with -i-ru/-e-ru are ichidan-verbs. Here I'm talking about native Japanese
adults who can conjugate common verbs like 切る/着る/帰る/変える without thinking. And
native speakers don't usually think about verb types; verb types are something
we learn at middle school, but most people forget about that soon after they
graduate.

For example, when you present an imaginary verb あべる to a native speaker and
tell them to conjugate it in various ways, the response would be
「あべらない」「あべります」「あべって」「あべれ」 rather than 「あべない」「あべます」「あべて」「あべろ」. Likewise, the
conjugation of an imaginary verb れぴる would be 「れぴらない」「れぴります」「れぴれ」「れぴろう」 rather
than 「れぴない」「れぴます」「れぴろ」「れぴよう」.

This I think is because [all verbs that were recently coined from loanwords
are godan-verbs](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/24351/5010).
[コピる](http://jisho.org/search/%E3%82%B3%E3%83%94%E3%82%8B) is an example of
godan verbs that may look like ichidan at first (We say コピれ but not コピろ).
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