わかりあえる？

[RNobleman]

What does 「わかりあえる？」 mean? I see わかる (to understand) in there. I looked up あえる in the dictionary (WWWJDIC) and it said to see あう (to meet). Does あえる＝あう? Is there a grammar rule here that I'm missing?

ありがとう。

[Psy]

Is there a grammar rule here that I'm missing?

Yup, there is, and it's easy to form! From わかります (to be clear/to understand) you get わかり (the ます-stem), to which you add あう (合う) and get わかりあう (to understand each other). Change that あう to あえる and you get わかりあえる which is "to be able to understand each other." This grammar is used a lot with はなす, "to speak": はなしあう "to speak with each other." I've also seen わらいあう ("to laugh at/with one another.")

One minor note: in English, where you'd sign off a request with "thank you," in Japanese you would use some form of よろしくお願いします "please take care of it for me."

So there you have it. Happy studies!

[RNobleman]

Thanks for the very helpful reply!