Japanese Verb Conjugation Basics: Masu Form, Plain Form and Te-Form

Japanese verbs don’t change for “I”, “you” or “they”, which is good news. What they do change for is politeness, negatives, the past and how they join to other words. Once you know which of three groups a verb belongs to, the patterns are surprisingly regular.

Two forms you meet first: ます and plain

Most textbooks start with the ます form (masu form): 食べます tabemasu, “I eat”. It is polite and safe with anyone you don’t know well, so it is the form you will use most as a beginner.

Every verb also has a plain form, also called the dictionary form because it is the form you look up: 食べる taberu. It means the same thing but is used with friends and family, and inside longer sentences. You need it because many other forms are built from it, and because you will hear it all the time in real conversation.

The three verb groups

• U-verbs (also called group 1 or godan verbs). The dictionary form ends in an -u sound: 書く kaku (write), 飲む nomu (drink), 話す hanasu (speak), 買う kau (buy). This is the biggest group.
• Ru-verbs (group 2 or ichidan verbs). They end in -iru or -eru, and the る simply drops off: 食べる taberu (eat), 見る miru (see), 起きる okiru (get up).
• Irregular verbs (group 3). There are two main ones: する suru (do) and 来る kuru (come). する is especially useful because it combines with nouns: 勉強する benkyō suru (study), 電話する denwa suru (phone).

One trap: some verbs end in -iru or -eru but are u-verbs, for example 帰る kaeru (go home), 入る hairu (enter), 走る hashiru (run) and 知る shiru (know). The ます form gives it away: 帰ります kaerimasu, not kaemasu. Learn these as you meet them.

Polite forms: ます, ません, ました

To make the ます form, u-verbs change their final -u to -i (書く → 書きます), ru-verbs drop る (食べる → 食べます), and the irregulars become します and 来ます kimasu.

From there, the polite forms are just endings:

• ます -masu: present or future, “I eat / I will eat”
• ません -masen: negative, “I don’t eat”
• ました -mashita: past, “I ate”
• ませんでした -masen deshita: past negative, “I didn’t eat”

Plain negative and past

The plain negative ends in ない -nai. U-verbs change -u to -a: 書かない kakanai, 飲まない nomanai. Verbs ending in う use わ: 買わない kawanai. Ru-verbs drop る: 食べない. The irregulars are しない and 来ない konai. For the past negative, change ない to なかった: 食べなかった.

The plain past ends in た or だ and follows exactly the same sound changes as the te-form below. If you can make one, you can make the other: 書いて → 書いた, 飲んで → 飲んだ.

The te-form

The te-form is the glue of Japanese. It links actions (“I got up and ate”), makes requests with ください (見てください, please look), and builds ている for ongoing actions (食べている, I’m eating). Ru-verbs simply swap る for て. U-verbs change according to their last syllable:

• う・つ・る → って: 買って, 待って, 帰って
• む・ぶ・ぬ → んで: 飲んで, 遊んで, 死んで
• く → いて: 書いて; ぐ → いで: 泳いで
• す → して: 話して
• Exception: 行く iku (go) becomes 行って itte, not iite.

Combined with what you already know, the te-form opens up a lot: ちょっと待ってください chotto matte kudasai (please wait a moment), 今、日本語を勉強しています ima, nihongo o benkyō shite imasu (I’m studying Japanese at the moment), 朝ご飯を食べて、学校に行きました asagohan o tabete, gakkō ni ikimashita (I had breakfast and went to school).

The patterns at a glance

One more small exception worth knowing: the negative of ある aru (there is) is simply ない nai.

How to make it stick

• Learn new verbs with their group, or with both the dictionary and ます forms, so you never have to guess.
• Drill a few verbs aloud through every form rather than memorising the rules on paper.
• Use them in short sentences about your own day: what you did, didn’t do and are doing now.
• Make sure your kana is solid. Conjugation is all about changing syllables, so reading hiragana comfortably makes it much easier.

Practising with a tutor

Charts help you understand conjugation, but speed comes from using the forms in conversation until you no longer have to stop and think. A native tutor can ask you questions that make you switch between polite, plain, past and te-forms naturally, and correct you as you go. At Hanabuddies, lessons are online and built around speaking, at whatever level you are now.