I am confused. Is this a mistake from DeepL translator of does 降 from the verb 降る as in 雨が降る actually change its pronunciation depending on the “tense”?

Okay I know this sounds like a stupid question but I typed in 雨が降っていた。Into DeepL and let the voice read it out loud and to my surprise the voice said あめがくだっていた and not not あめがふっていた as I would have expected.

So I played with it a little bit. When I type 雨が降る the pronunciation I get is あめがふる. When I type in 雨が降った it gives me あめがくだった and when I type あめが降り it gives me あめがおり as an pronunciation.

5 comments
  1. Just don’t use deepl for that, pal. It’s ふる.
    If you are not sure of how to read something, google it (hinative is nice) or wait until you hear it in context.

  2. 降る can also be read くだる, and implies descending, so in this case the rain descended rather than fell. Although it’s uncommon to use 降 and instead is more common to see 下る

  3. 降る is sometimes ふる and sometimes くだる depending on context. (Although くだる is rarely written as 降る in modern Japanese; it’s usually written as 下る.)

    In this context DeepL is wrong, because when you use it with rain it is always ふる. くだる means “to descend” or “to come down,” but when you’re talking about a person or something like a decree, not when you’re talking about rain or snow.

  4. In general – don’t trust translator apps. They can be useful, but they get things wrong a significant amount of the time.

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