Verb conjugation basics

Verbs express the action or existence of things. 
All of the Japanese verbs end with a “u” sound.

Japanese	Hiragana	How to read	How to read
歩く	あるく	aruku	walk
食べる	たべる	taberu	eat
来る	くる	kuru	come

Types of verbs

Godan-verbs

The words end with う, つ, る, ぬ, む, ぶ, く, ぐ or す.

e.g. 歩あるく(aru-ku), 読よむ(yo-mu)

Ichidan-verbs

The words end with “iru” or “eru“.

e.g. 見みる(m-iru), 食たべる(tab-eru)

Irregular-verbs

The words end with “くる” or “する“.

e.g. 来くる(kuru), する(suru)

How to identify the verb type

There are exceptions that end in “iru” or “eru” but are classified as Godan-verbs, but I won’t cover them here.

Conjugation forms

Dictionary form

This form has affirmative meaning and is often used at the end of the sentence.

Nai form

This form is the verb ends with “nai” which represents the meaning “not“, used for negative sentences.

Masu form

This form is the verb ends with “masu” which gives the sentence a polite meaning. We don’t use it much in conversations with family and friends.

Te form

This form is an important form used when creating various grammatical forms.
I will explain the variations of the Te form on another page.

Ta form

This form expresses past events, past events leading to the present, and their results.

Ba form

This form expresses the precondition. “Aば, B” means “If A, then B”.

Volitional form

This form expresses intention, often translated as “Let’s” or “be trying to”.

Imperative form

This form represents strong instruction.

Easiest Ichidan-verbs example

食たべる: to eat

Conjugations	Japanese	Romaji	Meanings
Dictionary form	食べる	tab-eru	I eat
Nai form (Negative form)	食べない	tab-enai	I don’t eat
Masu form	食べます	tab-emasu	I eat (polite)
Te form	食べて	tab-ete	*next table
Ta form (Past form)	食べた	tab-eta	I ate
Ba form (Subjunctive form)	食べれば	tab-ereba	if I eat,
Volitional form	食べよう	tab-eyou	Let’s eat
Imperative form	食べろ	tab-ero	Eat (strong)

Japanese	Grammatical role	English
食べて	request	Eat
食べてください	polite request	Please eat
食べて、寝る	describing 2 activities	eat and sleep
食べている	action in progress result of a change	be eating have eaten
食べてもいい	permission	you can eat
食べてあげる	do for you/someone	eat (for you/someone)
食べてくれる	do for me	eat (for me)
食べてみる	challenge	I’ll try (to eat)

Tense

*There is no future tense in Japanese

Aspect

Voice

Tips: Other examples of 食べる

English	Romaji	Japanese (casual saying)
can eat	tab-ereru	食べれる
can not eat	tab-erenai	食べれない
could eat	tab-ereta	食べれた
could not eat	tab-erenakatta	食べれなかった
should eat	tab-erubeki	食べるべき
should not eat	tab-erubekijanai	食べるべきじゃない
should have eaten	tab-erubekidatta	食べるべきだった
shouldn’t have eaten	tab-erubekijanakatta	食べるべきじゃなかった
might eat	tab-erukamo	食べるかも
might not eat	tab-enaikamo	食べないかも
might have eaten	tab-etakamo	食べたかも
might not have eaten	tab-enakattakamo	食べなかったかも
want to eat	tab-etai	食べたい
don’t want to eat	tab-etakunai	食べたくない
wanted to eat	tab-etakatta	食べたかった
didn’t want to eat	tab-etakunakatta	食べたくなかった