A characteristic feature of Japanese sentences is the location of the verb at the very end. Therefore, when reading long sentences, it is worth looking at the end to start the translation correctly. At the beginning of learning, we need to remember only four verb ending. This means that all words will change the same...
JapaneseThe verb

A characteristic feature of Japanese sentences is the location of the verb at the very end. Therefore, when reading long sentences, it is worth looking at the end to start the translation correctly. At the beginning of learning, we need to remember only four verb ending. This means that all words will change the same way. The following are the mentioned endings:
す ま (read: masu) – to affirmative sentences in present and future tense
ま せ ん (read:masen) – to negattive sentences in present and future tense
ま た (reading, mashita) – to affirmative sentences in future tense
ま せ ん で た (read: masendeshita) – to negative sentences in past tense
So let’s conjugate a few verbs
1. 遊 び ま す (pronounced asobimasu) – I’m having fun, I’ll be having fun
遊 び ま せ ん (pronounced asobimasen) – I am not playing, I will not play
遊 び ま し た (pronounced asobimashita) – I was having fun
遊 び ま せ ん で し た (pronounced asobimasendeshita) – I did not play
2.2.食 べ ま す (read: tabemas) – eat, I will eat
食 べ ま ん (read: tabemasen) – I do not eat, I will not eat
食べました (read. tabemashita) – I ate
食べませんでした (read. tabemasendeshita) – I did not eat
3.3.勉強します (read. benkyōshimasu) – I learn, I will learn
勉強しません (read. benkyōshimasen) – I do not learn, I will not learn
勉強しました (read. benkyōshimashita) – I learnt
勉強しませんでした (read. benkyōshimasendeshita) – I did not learn
Verb groups
In Japanese, verbs are divided into three groups and depending on their membership, they will change differently, for example. in simple form (used for friends, younger, lower social status, etc.)
GROUP I 五段 (read. godan)
In this group when creating various grammatical forms, the last syllable before the end of the “mass” will change. The name “godan” means “five endings” because in this group of verbs we will use all five vowels from the syllabary: a, i, u, e and o Below you can see how in various cases the verb 話 し ま (reading. hanashimasu) – means “talk”.
Verb form | Kanji | Hiragana | Rōmaji | End |
Regular nonpast form | 話す | はなす | hanasu | su |
Regular past form | 話した | はなした | hanashita | shita |
Regular nonpast negative form | 話さない | はなさない | hanasanai | sanai |
Regular negative past form | 話さなかった | はなさなかった | hanasanakatta | sanakatta |
Imperative | 話せ | はなせ | hanase | se |
Expression of will | 話そう | はなそう | hanasō | sō |
The form “te) | 話して | はなして | hanashite | shite |
Conditional | 話せば | はなせば | hanaseba | seba |
GROUP II 一段 (read. ichidan)
In this group, the basis of the verb remains the same during each variation, and only instead of the “mass” at the end of the verb, we add the appropriate ending. So let us change the verb 食 べ ま (reading. tabemas) – means “eat”.
Verb form | Kanji | Hiragana | Rōmaji | End |
Regular nonpast form | 食べる | たべる | taberu | ru |
Regular past form | 食べた | たべた | tabeta | ta |
Regular nonpast negative form | 食べない | たべない | tabenai | nai |
Regular negative past form | 食べなかった | 食べなかった | tabenakatta | nakatta |
Imperative | 食べろ | たべろ | tabero | ro |
Expression of will | 食べよう | たべよう | tabeyō | yo |
The form “te) | 食べて | たべて | tabete | te |
Conditional | 食べれば | たべれば | tabereba | reba |
GROUP III 不規則 (read. fukisoku)
This group includes irregular verbs, し ま す (read. shimasu) – do, 来 す (read: kimasu) – come, come, as well as verbs in which there is “ま す” (read. shimasu), which we can shorten to the noun by cutting this ending e.g. 買 い 物 し す (read: kaimonoshimas) – do shopping, while the 買 itself い 物 (read. kaimono) – shopping. In addition, verbs linked to ま す 来 (read. kimas). First, the verb し ま す (read. shimasu):
Verb form | Kanji | Hiragana | Rōmaji | End |
Regular nonpast form | – | する | suru | suru |
Regular past form | – | した | shita | shita |
Regular nonpast negative form | – | しない | shinai | shinai |
Regular negative past form | – | しなかった | shinakatta | shinakatta |
Imperative | – | しろ | shiro | shiro |
Expression of will | – | しよう | shiyō | shiyō |
The form “te) | – | して | shite | shite |
Conditional | – | すれば | sureba | sureba |
And also a variety of 来 verb ま す (read. kimas):
Verb form | Kanji | Hiragana | Rōmaji | End |
Regular nonpast form | 来る | くる | kuru | kuru |
Regular past form | 来た | きた | kita | kita |
Regular nonpast negative form | 来ない | こない | konai | konai |
Regular negative past form | 来なかった | こなかった | konakatta | konakatta |
Imperative | 来い | こい | koi | koi |
Expression of will | 来よう | こよう | koyō | koyō |
The form “te) | 来て | きて | kite | kite |
Conditional | 来られば | こられば | korareba | korareba |
I hope this article will help you become familiar with verbs so that learning Japanese is easier and more enjoyable 😊
Autor: Sandra Jaworska