分かる – Understanding the Meaning of Wakaru

The meaning of 分わかる in Japanese is to understand. This is a common word in Japanese and pretty straightforward most of the time. Let’s take a closer look

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The Difference between 分かる and Understand

In English, the word understand is a transitive verb. This basically means that it has a subject and a direct object. For example,

John understands math

Here, John is the subject and math is the direct object.

How to use を in Japanese

Japanese grammar works by putting small words known as particles after nouns. を is one of those part...

Japanese Universe

In Japanese however, 分かる is an intransitive verb. This means there is only a subject. So, we would rewrite the previous English sentence in Japanese like this:

ジョンは数学すうがくが分かる
Math is understandable for John

You can see that actually 分かる is closer to be understandable. 

How to use が in Japanese

Japanese grammar works by putting small words known as particles after nouns. が or ga in Japanese is...

Japanese Universe

How to use 分かる

The meaning of 分かる is closest to be understandable. However, it can also mean:

• to be recognizable
• to be able to tell
• to be comprehensible

It depends on the exact sentence. Let’s take a look at some examples.

太郎たろうの表情ひょうじょうからあまり寝ねていないと分かる
I can tell Taro didn’t sleep much from his facial expression

言いいたいことが分かる
I know what you want to say

キャベツとレタスの違ちがいが分からない
I don’t know the difference between cabbage and lettuce

Resources

• 分かる – Weblio