Okay and I've read it and that looks like base 5 from the way I've been learning it. I am also learning what the conjugations mean, in other words the verb ending. The table is just for me to look up verb bases. The book then lists verb endings for each base. Let's use the ending you used in the example.

つくろう　means 'let's make something' right? In my book it says that adding base 5 to the stem of the verb makes it 'let's...' in casual speak.

つくりましょう would be the same but more formal if I'm, thinking right. The book says that verbs in masu form use the verb base 2 making る in つくる become り according to the table and then I add one of the following to say change the tense, to say if it's negative/possitve or make it an inclusive command (ましょう). The different forms of masu being if I'm not mistaken:

ます - Present or future tense
ました - Past tense
ません - Negative present or future tense
ませんでした - Negative past tense
ましょう - Inclusive command: Let's...

I dunno it seems to be making sense to me. The bit I'm finding hard is what verb endings to learn first.

I suppose that is why we learn differently from who has Japanese as 母国語 (bokokugo) (native language). We need to learn it by translating and they learn it "from scratch", thus we have two different mental process.

Good Gods.
 

Damn!


I started self-teaching japanese and though i just needed to read a bit of kanji/hiragana/katakana and have some vocabulary...

But lkooking at some threads is just making my hed spin...

I have a LONG way to go

I'm not sure if this will be any easier but this is how my Japanese teacher taught my class (I'm a native speaker but I went to an international school so we spent much less time studying Japanese grammar compared to what I expect Kirakira san did).

for all types of verbs, you first learn the endings in this order
1. negative form: ends with -nai
2. ends with -masu
3. the verb form found in a dictionary
4. supposition form: ending in -ba for godan verbs, -reba for ichidan verbs
5. command form: E column (-e, -ke, -se,...,-re) for godan verbs, -ro for ichidan verbs
6. ends in -u for godan, -you for ichidan verbs

GODAN VERBS (all verbs that aren't ichidan or irregular verbs):
example 書く　（かく）
1. kaKA-nai
2. kaKI-masu
3. kaKU
4. kaKE-ba
5. kaKE
6. kaKO-u
for godan verbs with A group (A I U E O) conjugation, for example 買う　（かう）, A changes to WA (1. kaWA-nai)

ICHIDAN VERBS (verbs with the dictionary form end with -iru or -eru)
example: 見る（みる） & 食べる（たべる）
1. mi-nai; tabe-nai
2. mi-masu; tabe-masu
3. mi-ru; tabe-ru
4. mi-reba; tabe-reba
5. mi-ro; tabe-ro
6. mi-you; tabe-you

I suggest you just memorize the irregular verb conjugation since it's only two verbs (kuru and suru).

and then there's the -ta and -te forms but I'll skip those for now

I remember there was a song some classmates made up to remember the non-1-dan verb conjugations that goes something like the tune of Santa Claus is Coming to Town

u tsu ru tte (You better watch out)
mu bu nu nde (You better not cry)
su shite (You better not pout)
ku ite (I'm telling)
gu ide (You why)

kuru kite (Santa claus is)
suru shite (coming)
iku itte (to town)