わかる

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Japanese

Etymology 1

Alternative spellings
分かる
分る (dated)
解る
判る
理解る (uncommon)

From Old Japanese. Derived as the passive or intransitive conjugation of Old Japanese root verb 分く (waku, to separate, to break into pieces; to be separable or distinguishable). Compare transitive ()ける (wakeru).

As the passive or spontaneous conjugation of waku, the verb wakaru could be translated more directly as something like "it comes apart ", roughly analogous to English "I can see how it comes apart" → "I can see how it is put together".

Pronunciation

Verb

わかる (wakaruintransitive godan (stem わかり (wakari), past わかった (wakatta))

  1. 分かる, 解る: to be understandable, to understand
    はい()かりました
    Hai, wakarimashita.
    Yes. I understood.
  2. 分かる: to tell (one thing from another), to distinguish
  3. 分かる, 判る: to be recognized, to be realized
  4. 分かる: to become known, to turn out
    ()かった
    Wakatta!
    I've got it! / I know!
Usage notes

In recent usage, this term may be more commonly spelt in hiragana.

The Japanese verb wakaru is most often glossed as to understand. However, wakaru is intransitive, and it takes the thing that is understood, distinguished, or recognized as the subject (usually marked by particle (ga)), and not the object (usually marked by particle (o)). Strictly speaking, wakaru is thus closer to English to be understandable, as the verb wakaru describes the thing itself, unlike English to understand, which describes the action of the person doing the understanding, distinguishing, or recognizing.

Despite the above, the form with and transitive usage also exists, although this may be proscribed, and is not reflected in some dictionaries.

Wakaru can take an agent (what would be the subject of the English verb to understand) marked by the particle (ni) or a topic marker.

  • *分かる (incorrect, ❌)
  • 分かる (correct, ✔)
  • (ふく)(ざつ)でも、((わたし))この()(じょう)()かる
    Fukuzatsu de mo, (watashi ni) kono jijō ga wakaru.
    Although it's complicated, this situation is understandable (to me).

Compare the difference in usage of transitive verb 知る (shiru, to know).

Conjugation
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Alternative spellings
分かる
別る
分る (dated)

Pronunciation

Verb

わかる (wakarunidan

  1. Classical Japanese form of わかれる (wakareru): to split, to fork, to branch off
Conjugation
Derived terms

See also

References

  1. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN
  2. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN