Verb Conjugation
Welcome to the first hurdle of Japanese; verbs and their conjugations. Fortunately, there are only 2 “true” tenses in Japanese. Here you will learn how to conjugate to the present-future tense, present negative tense, past tense, negative past tense, and the concept of a verb stem. But first, here’s some of the words used here.
- Dictionary – How the verb appears in the dictionary. This is the same as present/future
- Verb stem – The main, unalterable part of the verb. Invaluable for conjugating.
- Present/future – A combined simple present and future tense. There is no distinction in Japanese. This is NOT present progressive.
Verb types and Verb stems
There are 2 main types of Japanese verbs; Ichidan (1 type) and Godan (5 type). For both types of verbs, you will conjugate by adding to the verb stem.
A verb stem is generally:
- Ichidan verbs – Remove the last る
- Godan Verbs – Remove the last “う” sound.
They look like this:
- たべる→たべ
- のむ(nomu)→(nom)
The best piece of advice I can give you for learning conjugations is to memorize a representative verb from each category. If you get stuck, just think back to that verb.
Ichidan Verbs ~いる(iru)・~える(eru)
Also called る (ru) verbs, most verbs ending in る are Ichidan verbs. These verbs will always end in an いる or える sound. Almost all verbs with these endings are ichidan, but some godan verbs end in いる or える.
Common Ichidan Verbs
- たべる (taberu) – to eat
- みる (miru) – to look
- こたえる (kotaeru) – to answer
- 出る (deru) – to leave
Common Exceptions
The words below are not ichidan verbs, but godan verbs that look like ichidan.
- かえる (kaeru) – to go home
- しる (shiru) – to know
- はしる (hashiru) – to run
- はいる (hairu) – to enter
- きる (kiru) – to cut
Ichidan Verb Conjugation Table
| Conjugation | Rule | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary form | As is | たべる | eat |
| Verb stem | Drop the る | たべ | - |
| Present/future | Same as dictionary | たべる | eat, will eat |
| Negative | verb stem + ない | たべない | Not eat, won't eat, don't eat |
| Past | verb stem + た | たべた | ate |
| Negative Past | verbstem + なかった | たべなかった | Not ate, didn't eat. |
Godan Verbs
Godan verbs are called that because, unlike ichidan verbs, they can change the う sound to each of the 4 other vowel sounds. You do not need to know all of these changes now.
Unfortunately, godan verbs have a lot of exceptions to their conjugations, but these still follow a pattern. These are mostly for ease of pronunciation, and you should get used to them fairly quickly. Please read the exceptions on the chart below.
Learning the rules is not ideal; you should instead just memorize a representative. Please see the last chart on this page.
Godan Verbs Conjugation Rules
| Conjugation | Rule | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary form | As is | かえる | go home |
| Verb stem | Drop the う sound | かえr | - |
| Present/future | Same as dictionary | かえる | go home, will go home |
| Negative | verb stem + あない | かえらない | not go home, won't go home |
| Past | verb stem + った | かえった | went home |
| Negative Past | verbstem + あなかった | かえらなかった | Didn't go home |
| Exceptions | |||
| Verbs that end only in う | Add w to verb stem for あ sound | かう→かわない | う used to be "wu" |
| Verbs that in in つ | つ becomes "t", drops for past tense | かつ→かたない | つ is thought of as "Tu" |
| Past Tense Exceptions | |||
| Verbs that end in す | す becomes し before T | はなす→はなした | The S in S+T sounds like し |
| Verbs that end in く | Drop く、add いた | かく→かいた | Easier to say. |
| Verbs that end in ぐ | Drop ぐ、add いだ | およぐ→およいだ | Easier to say. |
| Verbs that end in ぬ,む,ぶ | Change to N, after N change T to D | しぬ→しんだ | Easier to say. |
Irregular Verbs
There are only 2 (main) irregular verbs in Japanese, する and くる. They both behave mostly like ichidan verbs except for their verb stems.
The verb stem of する is し。
The verb stem of くる is き or こ.
する Table
| Conjugation | Rule | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary form | する | する | do |
| Verb stem | し | し | - |
| Present/future | Same as dictionary | する | do, will do |
| Negative | verb stem + ない | しない | don't do, won't do |
| Past | verb stem + た | した | did |
| Negative Past | verbstem + なかった | しなかった | didn't do |
くる Table
| Conjugation | Rule | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary form | くる | する | come |
| Verb stem | き or こ | き or こ | - |
| Present/future | Same as dictionary | くる | come, will come |
| Negative | verb stem + ない | こない | Don't come, won't come |
| Past | verb stem + た | きた | came |
| Negative Past | verbstem + なかった | こなかった | Didn't come |
Representatives chart
| Verb Ending | Dictionary form | Verb stem | Present/future | Negative | Past | Negative Past |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ichidan | ||||||
| る (Ichidan) | たべる | たべ | たべる | たべない | たべた | たべなかった |
| Godan | ||||||
| る | かえる | kaer | かえる | かえらない | かえった | からなかった |
| う | かう | ka(w) | かう | かわない | かった | かわなかった |
| く | きく | kik | きく | きかない | きいた | きかなかった |
| ぐ | およぐ | oyog | およぐ | およがない | およいだ | およがなかった |
| ぬ | しぬ | shin | しぬ | しなない | しんだ | しななかった |
| む | よむ | yom | よむ | よまない | よんだ | よまなかった |
| ぶ | とぶ | tob | とぶ | とばない | とんだ | とばなかった |
| Irregular | ||||||
| する | する | し | する | しない | した | しなかった |
| くる | くる | き・こ | くる | こない | きた | こなかった |