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