Verb Conjugation

To begin with, we are going to look at 3 groups

of verbs.
Group 1 verbs
Group 2 verbs
Irregular verbs
Group 1 verbs are also known as godan, V5
verbs and u-verbs. Godan verbs include all
verbs that do NOT end in iru or eru, as well as
some that do. and are not included in
this group and are irregular.

First, why are they called godan verbs?

Heres why you remember that the series of
vowels in Japanese are , , , , ? And
theres five of them the kanji for godan is
literally 5 stage!
Well, godan verbs follow the pattern
when they conjugate! What the hell do I
mean?! I hear you cry!
When we conjugate godan verbs, they follow
this pattern:
(A) negative form
(I) infinitive form
(U) dictionary form
(E) conditional form
(O) "let's" or "volitional" form

To illustrate this, well follow the conjugation of

a simple Group 1 godan verb , in its
dictionary form.
Negative ( )
(the dictionary form), when negative, must
take the vowel which is associated at its last
(so it would be u from ku), and change it to an
a becoming . After that you need to
add , which is the negative suffix.
Like this:
>
Dont go!!

> + nai =

For verbs like (to meet), you notice that

following these rules would give you
which is frankly ridiculous. So instead, the a
you add becomes wa
>

> + nai =

Infinitive
The infinitive is the form to which you can add
other verbs, honour or both. Its the base form
from which standard / Japanese is
spoken.
The infinitive form is almost stand-alone, in
that the conjugations used in this form can be
used almost exclusively.
Changing the dictionary form of to the
infinitive form, drop the final vowel (u), and
add i. So, becomes . To this we add
the suffix , to make the word to go.
>

> + masu =

Another example:
(to drink)
> > + masu =
You can conjugate this form to negative by
using the suffix, e.g., (do not
go), (do not drink).

Dictionary Form
The dictionary form is the standardized
form for finding all verbs in dictionaries.
This form, for all verbs, regardless of their
conjugation schemes, will end with a u.
Just leave a verb alone to get the dictionary
form!

Imperative/Conditional Form
This form is used to give commands, make
suggestions or hypothetical statements.
Sometimes this form has no suffix.
Changing to the imperative form, we drop
the u and add e.
Please, please, please dont say this though! It
will get you into a lot of trouble ><
Adding the suffix to the imperative form
makes the true conditional form. would
be translated to Why dont you go? or What
if you went?
>

+ e

imperative

(imperative) + ba = conditional
Maybe you hear it means, IF

Volitional
The form is the one that is probably the
most confusing. The volitional form is
essentially the lets form.
You change to the volitional form by
dropping u and adding ou2dd ou. The
suffix in this case would be the u of ou it is
merely the extension of the sound.
becomes - lets go. can also
be conjugated in this form, simply converting
the - ending to a - .
- ku >

+ kou

Verb Conjugation Group 1/Godan/

V5/u-verbs
Form

Rule starting from

dictionary form

Example

negative

Drop final vowel +

anai*

- u, + anai =

infinitive

Drop final vowel +

imasu

- u, + imasu =

dictionary

Do nothing to u
ending form

imperative/conditional

Drop final vowel +

e/drop final vowel +
eba

- u, + eba =

volitional

Drop final vowel + ou

- u, + ou =

*except for au ending verbs, where a is replaced with wa

Verb Conjugation
Now we will move on to the second group.
These are known as Group 2/ichidan/ruverbs/V1 verbs.
These verbs are most verbs that end in iru or
eru. This includes the verb to be, for
animates.
Well follow the verb (to eat) through the
conjugations for this group.

Negative
Drop the ru and add -nai.
> + nai

Infinitive
Drop the ru and add masu.
> + masu

You can conjugate the infinitive form to

and .
Dctionary
Keep the verb the same.

Imperative/Conditional
Drop the ru and add ro.

>

> =

To form the conditional, drop ru and add

reba.

>

> =

Volitional
Drop the ru and add you.

> > =
That was all really easy, right?

Verb Conjugation Group 2/ Ichidan

V1/ru-verbs

Form

Rule starting from

dictionary form

Example

negative

Drop ru add nai

>

infinitive

Drop ru add masu

>

dictionary

- the basic form ending

in ru

>

imperative/conditional

Drop ru add ro/

drop ru add reba

>
>

volitional

Drop ru and you

>

Verb Conjugation
Finally were going to look at the irregular
verbs. There are many out there, but these are
two that you are going to run into the most
often and .

They are irregular verbs because they have

HIGHLY irregular conjugation patterns.
The best way to learn them is to just
memorise.


Negative

>

Infinitive

>

Dictionary

>

Imperative/Conditional

>
>

Volitional

>


Negative

>

Infinitive

>

Dictionary

>

Imperative/Conditional

>
>

Volitional

> *
* NEVER USED

Lets do some practice!

te-form
Te-form is an incredibly important part of
Japanese. Although I wont go into its many
uses, if you want to say anything beyond
the most basic Japanese, you need to learn
this.
The u-verbs are the most difficult to
remember when conjugating , so try this
little song:

-verb te form!
It tells us that verbs ending u, ru or tsu
drop their ending, and adopt instead.
Similarly for mu, bu, nu verbs, these are

te-form u-verb conjugation

Verb type

Rule

Example

Drop final
syllable, add

Drop final
syllable, add

Drop final
syllable, add

Drop final
syllable, add

ru-verbs conjugate a lot more easily for teform. All you have to do is drop the ru
and whack on a .
For example

Masu stem plus

Tai desire 1 i-adj
Tagaru desire 2 5dan verb
Hashinai stong neg desire
Gachi