All about verbs in Japanese!

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So, we saw a lot of verbs while going through the lessons. In the lesson about casual speech, we saw briefly how verbs are constructed and how they are conjugated. It has come to my attention, however, that some wanted more explanation on verbs. Well, this is exactly what I will do in this article!

So, in Japanese, we have three types of verbs. If you remember, we had the ichidan verbs, the godan verbs, and the irregular verbs. 

Ichidan Verbs

Ichidan verbs are the easiest to conjugate, so we will start with them. They are often called る verbs, because they will all end in る in their infinitive form or dictionary form (the dictionary form is the form you will find verbs in if you look them up in a dictionary).

Here are some examples of ichidan verbs:

たべる - to eat

おきる - to wake up

みる - to see, to look. to watch

みつける - to find

まける - to lose (a match)

わける - to divide

いきる - to live (be alive)

あける - to open (transitive)

みとめる - to admit

こたえる - to answer

These verbs will be relatively easy to conjugate because we will simply take the stem of the verb and then plug in the verb ending we need. The stem is what is left of the verb once we remove the final syllable る. This means that the verb stem won't change or be affected.

たべる -- たべ

おきる -- おき

みる -- み

みつける -- みつけ

For any verb ending, you just need to plug it to the verb stem.

たべます

たべません / たべない

たべました / たべた

たべませんでした / たべなかった

たべて

たべましょう

You see that we keep the verb stem as is and we only attach the different verb tense endings.

The volition form (let's) in casual speech for ichidan verbs is formed by adding よう to the verb stem.

たべよう

おきよう

みつけよう

みよう

To give orders more explicitly, for ichidan verbs, the final る syllable will become ろ.

たべろ

おきろ

まけろ

みろ

So, ichidan verbs, or first-class verbs, are verbs which the stem is not affected and will stay as is. They always end in る in the dictionary form. Keep in mind, though, that some verbs end in る, but are godan verbs. How do you spot the difference? You will see it once the godan verbs are conjugated.

Godan Verbs

Godan verbs are a little bit more complicated to conjugate. With godan verbs, the stem of the verbs will be affected by all verb tense endings. There are nine possibilities of verb endings in godan verbs: う, く, す, つ, ぬ, む, る, ぐ and ぶ. This is why we call them う verbs, because they all end with the sound う.

Godan verbs will change depending on their dictionary form. The stem of the verbs will thus change, which makes godan verbs a bit more challenging to conjugate.

Here are some examples of godan verbs:

かう - to buy

かく - to write

はなす - to speak

まつ - to wait

しぬ - to die

よむ - to read

つくる - to make

およぐ - to swim

あそぶ - to play

The ます, ません, ました, ませんでした and ましょう forms

To form any of these endings, the dictionary form う sound will change into a い sound.

かう -- かい -- かいます

かく -- かき -- かきます

はなす -- はなし -- はなします

まつ -- まち -- まちます

しぬ -- しに -- しにます

よむ -- よみ -- よみます

*つくる -- つくり -- つくります

およぐ -- およぎ -- およぎます

あそぶ -- あそび -- あそびます

*つくる is a godan verb appearing as an ichidan verbs. We can see that this verb behaves like a godan verb, because of the stem changing. 

Here is a list of godan verbs that look like ichidan verbs:

https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/which-godan.html

The ない and なかった forms

In the negative casual forms ない (present tense) and なかった (past tense), the う sound will change into a あ sound.

*かう -- かわ -- かわない

かく -- かか -- かかない

はなす -- はなさ -- はなさない

まつ -- また -- またない

しぬ -- しな -- しなない

よむ -- よま -- よまない

つくる -- つくら -- つくらない

およぐ -- およが -- およがない

あそぶ -- あそば -- あそばない

*In the case of verbs ending in う like かう and あう, the あ sound will be わ. This is due to the past 'wu' sound that does not exist in Japanese anymore. かう and あう were once pronounced 'kawu' and 'awu', thus requiring the sound わ. The わ sound remained, while the sound 'wu' disappeared.

Thus, it is かわない and not かあない.

The た form (past tense)

Once again, to form the past tense in casual speech, the endings will change depending on the dictionary form endings.

かう -- かった

かく -- かいた

はなす -- はなした

まつ -- まった

しぬ -- しんだ

よむ -- よんだ

つくる -- つくった

およぐ -- およいだ

あそぶ -- あそんだ

In the case of verbs ending in う, つ and る, the ending will be った.

In the case of verbs ending in く and す, the ending will be いた and した.

In the case of verbs ending in ぬ, む and ぶ, the ending will be んだ.

In the case of verbs ending in ぐ, the ending will be いだ.

The て form

The て form will be the same as the た form.

かう -- かって

かく -- かいて

はなす -- はなして

まつ -- まって

しぬ -- しんで

よむ -- よんで

つくる -- つくって

およぐ -- およいで

あそぶ -- あそんで

The case of the verb いく (to go)

The verb いく is irregular in this case. It will behave much like verbs ending in う, つ and る when in the た form or て form.

いく -- いった

いく -- いって

The volition form

The volition for the casual form with the godan verbs will require the sound おう. So, the う sound will change into a お sound.

かう -- かおう

かく -- かこう

はなす -- はなそう

まつ -- まとう

しぬ -- しのう

よむ -- よもう

つくる -- つくろう

およぐ -- およごう

あそぶ -- あそぼう

Finally, to give orders more explicitly, the godan verbs will require the sound え.

かう -- かえ

かく -- かけ

はなす -- はなせ

まつ -- まて

しぬ -- しね

よむ -- よめ

つくる -- つくれ

およぐ -- およげ

あそぶ -- あそべ

So, the godan verbs, or the fifth-class verbs, are verbs which the stem will change depending on their dictionary form endings. For this reason, they are a bit more complex to conjugate than ichidan verbs, but they do follow a pattern.

The irregular verbs する and くる

する and くる are the only two irregular verbs in Japanese.

For the ます, ません, ました, ませんでした and ましょう forms:

する -- し -- します

くる -- き -- きます

For the ない and なかった forms:

する -- し -- しない, しなかった

くる -- こ -- こない, こなかった

For the た and て forms:

する -- し -- した, して

くる -- き -- きた, きて

For the volition form:

する -- し -- しよう

くる -- こ -- こよう

For explicit orders:

する -- し -- しろ

くる -- こ -- こい

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If you still have questions about verbs, do not hesitate to reach out!