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So, 分かる is never used as 分かれる, right? Because 分かる is already a potential-form verb, according to my Japanese grammar dictionary. About なる: can it be conjugated as なれる? Or how about ならせる? For example, 青くならせる--make it blue. If not, how do I say things like, "Make her happy; turn this blue; make it so!" And back to 分かる, can you say 分からせる: 'make it understood'?

Wolfpack'08
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    I think that the main reason with 分かる is to prevent confusion with the verb 別れる, which has the same root but has shifted in meaning. – ithisa Dec 29 '13 at 02:24
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    @user54609 It's just a homonym. That's like saying we shouldn't say 'bat' in baseball because it might be confused with an animal. People can read contextual queues. When a foreigner says 分かれる, it's probably mistaken with 別れる for the contrapositive reason that 分かれる isn't grammatical and isn't a word. Like 雨 and 飴, homonyms exist in Japanese. – Wolfpack'08 Dec 29 '13 at 02:38
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    I don't think so. 別 and 分 have similar kanji meanings, and 国語辞書 says ［動ラ下一］［文］わか・る［ラ下二］《「分かれる」と同語源》... – ithisa Dec 29 '13 at 02:42
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    分かれる is also a word albeit also with a weird semantic shift. This is probably the most direct answer. – ithisa Dec 29 '13 at 02:43
  • @user54609 飴 and 雨 don't have similar meanings, either, but they're both used. There's also a lot of confusion about する and させる. Why say 青くする and not 青くさせる? Is the latter 'make it turn itself blue', and the sooner 'make it blue by your own hand', or is the reverse more true? Maybe, for example, させる means 'force' and する means 'assist'? Oh you're right, 分かれる is a word, but it isn't a word that follows with 'understand'. – Wolfpack'08 Dec 29 '13 at 02:50
  • 雨 and 飴 are etymologically unrelated. Instead, 分かれる came as you expected from the potential of 分かる but gained another meaning.

    By 青くする and 青くさせる, I would venture "turn blue", intransitive, as the logical meaning of the first and "make something blue", transitive, as the logical meaning of the second. But I'm far from a native speaker, and I actually don't know the actual usage, just guessing from grammar here.

     – ithisa Dec 29 '13 at 02:53
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    I think it's the other way around: 分かれる has the older meaning, and 分かる gained a new meaning. As an aside, in this post sawa suggests that because *分かることができる is unacceptable the "prevent confusion with わかれる" idea doesn't fly. –  Dec 29 '13 at 03:33

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分かる is never used as 分かれる, right? Because 分かる is already a potential-form verb, according to my Japanese grammar dictionary.

Right. You don't say 分かれる to mean "can understand".

About なる: can it be conjugated as なれる?

Yes, the potential form of なる is なれる.

Or how about ならせる? For example, 青くならせる--make it blue.

ならせる is the causative form of なる. 青くならせる is understandable but we normally use 青くする (or 青くさせる) to mean "make it blue".

make her happy → 幸せにする
turn this blue → 青くする
make it so → そうする

And back to 分かる, can you say 分からせる: 'make it understood'?

Yes. 分からせる is the causative form of 分かる.

chocolate
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