To Understand
To Be Understandable
intransitive verb, godan verb
This word means to understand, which might surprise you if you remember that the kanji 分 means part. Think of it this way: to understand something you have to break it down into its parts to see how it works.
Watch out, though, because whereas in English you understand something, in Japanese the thing you understand is the grammatical subject (it's doing the action). So, a more literal meaning for this is to be understandable. In other words, there's no object, and 分かる is intransitive, meaning it happens on its own. The かる ending is a hint, because verbs with かる as okurigana (kana added to the kanji) are usually intransitive.
Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun'yomi reading. You didn't learn that reading with this kanji, so here's a mnemonic to help you:
You scream "WAHHHHHH" (わ) in terror and "CAAAR!!!" (か) as you careen down the freeway. Your dad is driving like a maniac and almost hit another car! "WAAH CAAAR!!!" (わか) you scream again. If only he understood your terror!
この人、だれか分かる？
Do you know who this person is?
文で元パートナーからのメールだと、すぐに分かった。
I immediately knew it was an email from a former partner based on the sentence.
よく分からない本だった。
It was a book I didn't quite understand.