Beginner guide to conjugating verbs in Japanese

Introduction to verbs in Japanese

If you want to say something in a language you need a verb in most cases and in Japanese how the verb is conjugated can change a lot depending on the verb and its use. Verbs in Japanese are not necessarily difficult to learn, once you get the hang of it, but getting to that point can take a while. In the following article you get a summarized account on how Japanese verbs work and what you need to know as a beginner. First, a few points that are important to know before we begin. Don’t think too much about what these mean. It will be more clear when you progress through the article.

First verb conjugation and formal/informal forms

This all may seem a bit abstract, so let’s make it a little more tangible so you can see what’s happening and what this all means. For example, let’s take something simple like eating:

Conjugating たべる – To eat

りんごをたべる
ringo o taberu
I eat an apple

Here, りんご (ringo) is an apple, を (o) is the を-particle which is used to indicate an object being used. たべる is the verb for eating. Pretty straightforward right? Wrong! Japanese is a bit different in that the verb is conjugated differently depending on the formality of the situation. For example, if you speak to someone older, a stranger or higher in some hiearchy, you would say

Conjugating たべる – To eat in formal form

りんごをたべます
ringo o tabemasu
I eat an apple

The ます-ending of the verb たべる signals some respect to the person you are talking to. The first form, たべる, has several names. It’s called the short form, informal form and plain form. But most importantly, it is called the dictionary form. This is how you learn verbs when you first learn and how they are displayed in the dictionary. たべます is called the formal form.

Main Lesson 4

You will learn verbs first in their dictionary form, (like たべる). These are also called short, informal or plain form.

Learn more about formal and informal forms in Japanese in this article

Conjugating present tense in Japanese

So now that you have learned what

Conjugating for past tense in Japanese

.As you saw in the main lessons above, Japanese verbs are conjugated differently depending if you are in an informal or formal situation. But what if you want to say that you ate an apple?

Conjugating たべる – To eat for past tense

Informal
りんごをたべた
I ate an apple

Formal
りんごをたべた

食べる (たべる) – To eat	Positive	Negative
Present	たべる	たべない
Past

The main verb always comes last in Japanese 

First things first, one thing you have to learn is that the main verb of a sentence always comes at the end. It can be followed by particles, but in respect to the other grammatical parts of a sentence the main verb comes last. This is counterintuitive for English speakers and most speakers of Western languages, but after a while you get the hang of it.

Regular conjugating verbs in Japanese come in two flavors: る-verbs and う-verbs

As in other languages some Japanese verbs conjugate to a regular pattern while others conjugate irregularly. The regular conjugating verbs come in roughly two flavors, る-verbs and う-verbs, or  いちだん and ごだん verbs as they are officialy called. The difference between the two groups is that they conjugate differently.

But then how can you tell which verb is which? Well, as the name implies, る verbs always have the hiragana character る as an ending. All the verbs with another hiragana character at the end are う verbs. Simple enough right? But wait, there is one catch, some verbs that end with a る are in reality う verbs. For example かえる (to return) is in reality a う verb. There is no definitive rule to tell if these verbs are really る verbs or う verbs. You simply have to learn them, but there is a rule that is correct in 95 per cent of the cases: 

• If the last hiragana before the る is an い or え, it is a る verb. 

Ok, that’s pretty clear. But the people paying attention might have noticed already. What about かえる?? This has an え as the last hiragana character before the る but is still an う verb. Yeah, so this is the 5 per cent. You just have to learn these. As for the irregular verbs, there are two important irregular verbs you have to learn and a lot of the other irregular verbs are a  combination of a noun and する, like べんきょうする (To study), so once you learn how to conjugate する, you will have come a long way. 

Japanese verbs have a formal ます-form and informal short dictionary form 

Furthermore, you may have read how the Japanese have a thoroughly developed culture of showing respect and this is something that is expressed among other things in verb conjugation. When trying to be polite you use the so called ます-form while you can use ‘short form’ when talking to peers. In this lesson we will be only conjugating to the polite ます-form. 

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	1:	Remove the last る
	2:	Put ます where you removed る

Let’s perform this operation on たべる. Take the る and replace it with ます you get たべます. And that’s it, now you have the polite form of たべる. That wasn’t so hard, was it? But what if you want to say something about the past or what if you didn’t eat.

	Present	= Remove る add ます
	Past Positive	= Remove る add ました
	Present negative	= Remove る add ません
	Past negative	= Remove る add ませんでした

In the table below you can see how you can conjugate further from たべます to get the past tense and a negative. 

	Present	Past
Positive	たべます	たべました
	I eat	I ate
Negative	たべません	たべませんでした
	I do not eat	I did not eat

So now you can not only say you are eating something, but also that you ate something in the past. Some quick examples: 

	すし を たべました
	I ate sushi
	すし	=   Sushi

	げつようび に にく を たべません でした. さかな を たべました
	I did not eat meat on Monday. I ate fish.
	げつようび	=   Sushi
	にく	=   Meat
	さかな	=   Fish

Some る-verbs conjugate like う-verbs 

Until now the rules were pretty clear right? Now comes the tricky part. Some verbs that have the ending る are not る-verbs at all, but actually う-verbs, and they conjugate like う-verbs. An example is とる (to take). This verb has a る-ending but it conjugates like a う-verb, so the ます-form is とります. 

So how do you make the difference? I’m sorry to say there is no definitive rule, but in 95 per cent of the cases these fake る-verbs have a different vowel before the end. If this vowel is a,o or u, in all the cases the verb is a う verb. For example, these…. 

わかる = To understand
つくる = To make
とる = To take
おどる = To dance

 …are all う verbs with a る ending. One exception is the verb かえる (to come home). The above rule will help you in most cases but do expect to be surprised sometimes. 

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Irregular verbs する and くる

There are a lot of irregular verbs, but good news, most of them conjugate the same. The most important irregular Japanese verbs are する (to do) and くる (to come). A lot of the other irregular verbs are a combination of a noun and する or くる so if know how to conjugate these, you know a lot. 

する (to do)	Present	Past
Positive	します	しました
	I do, I will do	I did
Negative	しません	しませんでした
	I do not, I will not do	I did not

くる (to come)	Present	Past
Positive	きます	きました
	I come, I will come	I came
Negative	きません	きませんでした
	I do not come, I will not come	I did not come

Read More:

• Top 250 most common Japanese verbs
• The potential form of Japanese verbs
• Passive tense in Japanese
• Causative form in Japanese
• Causative passive form in Japanese
• Imperative form in Japanese
• Transitive and Intransitive Verbs in Japanese
• Japanese Godan, Ichidan en irregular verbs
• Japanese imposter verbs