Jisho.org Forum

あう - Dictionary/Plain
あいます - Masu form - meet
あえます - Potential form - Can meet

For potential form of 五段 verbs (u-verbs), replace u with eru and the new form is a 一段 or ru-verb. For 一段 (ru-verbs), replace ru with rareru.

eg. のむ　＞　のめる；　たべる　＞　たべられる

Dear Aodh,

Thank you!

If I understood your kind explanation correctly, next conjugations were used:

あう　＞　あえる (can meet) ＞　あえました　(can meet with higher level of politeness)

Suppose, I talking to my friend, is it good to omit -masu form and say something like:
「くじ　に　いく　と　さのさん　に　あえる」

Thank you!

ーました is polite past
polite present is ーます, so "to can meet" or lit. "to be able to meet" is あえる => あえます

You are dropping ーます each time you want your message to sound less polite, more common, like ie.
私は食べます - I eat / this is polite
僕は食べる - I eat / this is not polite; simple common

Same with potential form:
私は食べられます - I am able to eat; I can eat / this is polite
僕は食べられる - I am able to eat; I can eat / this is simple common

My Latin teacher told us that you don´t say "to can" unless you work in a baked bean factory ;)

Heh, grammatic gymnastics become necessary to explain language concepts sometimes. "to can meet" is technically closer to the grammar of あえる than "to be able to meet" because in the longer phrase the verb is "to be" not "to meet." This can be distracting, just depends on the learner. :)

Posted By: nate

[p]Heh, grammatic gymnastics become necessary to explain language concepts sometimes. "to can meet" is technically closer to the grammar of あえる than "to be able to meet" because in the longer phrase the verb is "to be" not "to meet." This can be distracting, just depends on the learner. :)[/p]

You could say the same about "to have met", where two verbs are used.

If you're a grammar geek who understands the concept of modal verbs and auxiliary verbs, it's no problem, but I guess some people might be more comfortable with "to can" ;)

Very true!

nate, you would bow before using "to can" in case of explaining - for example - polish.

"grammar geeks"

Oh, I'm sure. I taught a lot of complex English grammar to my Japanese friends by twisting verbs around that way. Conversely, I was only able to learn many complex Japanese constructs by similarly abstracting the grammar out and then asking, "like that?" The 5-second blank expression followed by, "Yeah, exactly! Only, don't ever say it that way" became my bread and butter. :)

Anyway, sorry to jack your thread, dc, but it's really cool to see how we learn languages in such unique ways.

Posted By: nate

[p]Oh, I'm sure. I taught a lot of complex English grammar to my Japanese friends by twisting verbs around that way. Conversely, I was only able to learn many complex Japanese constructs by similarly abstracting the grammar out and then asking, "like that?" The 5-second blank expression followed by, "Yeah, exactly! Only, don't ever say it that way" became my bread and butter. :)[/p][p]Anyway, sorry to jack your thread, dc, but it's really cool to see how we learn languages in such unique ways.[/p]

It certainly is. When I was studying TEFL, I learnt a lot about different learning styles and how each student has his own unique way of learning. Very cool!