Types of words in dictionary

[tarokun]

It would be nice if the dictionary would say if the verb is a class 1 verb or class 2 or the adjective is an i-adj or a na-adj, etc for other types of words.

Also, it seems like the dictionary can only recognize the plain form of verbs and adjectives. For example, it finds 食べる but not 食べます. Sometimes, when we encounter a japanese word in literatures it is not obvious what the word's plain form is.

[kinoko]

that's not really necessary. there are only a few exceptions to the rules for telling if a verb's class one or two, and i don't know of any exceptions to the i vs na adjective rules.

[tarokun]

You may be right. But the point of looking a word up in a dictionary is to seek a conclusive information of the word's usage.

For example, when I first encountered the word 勉強, I thought it was a verb instead of a noun. Note that it also has the -u ending like verbs.

All it needs is some special keys like (v1, v2a, v2b, i-adj, na-adj, n, etc) in the definition field.

[Bueller_007]

that's not really necessary. there are only a few exceptions to the rules for telling if a verb's class one or two, and i don't know of any exceptions to the i vs na adjective rules.

There are a number of i/na exceptions, the most common being "kirai" (嫌い, "disliked"), a -na adjective that ends with -i. Things that end with -i can also be nouns, like "hitokui" (人食い, "cannibalism"), and if you want to get technical, 嫌い is one as well (the stem of the verb "kirau" (嫌う, "to dislike".)) Lots of potential for confusion here if the parts of speech aren't listed.

There are also lots of cases where verb group 1/group 2 is ambiguous. I don't know how many, but I'd guess hundreds. And not just with higher-level verbs: even "hashiru" (走る, "to run") and "iru" (要る, "to need") are exceptions to the general rule.

Giving the part of speech is standard in dictionaries, and it's actually built into the dataset that they are using. It would be very easy to implement.

[kinoko]

I don't think the nouns would be too much of a problem, but I guess you are right about the adjectives and stuff.

How could this be brought to David Hallgren's attention ...?

[Jonas]

I'll talk with david and see what we can do. We already have some plans to increase the userfriendlyness of the dictionary, so please stay put Hopefully wont be too long till we'll see some updates there.