This article introduces Japanese verbs and the ways they inflect (change form).

Verbs are words that indicate action. In Japanese,

  • A full sentence normally has a verb at the end, called the “main verb” of the sentence.
  • The ending of a verb changes to indicate different tenses, moods, positive or negative, and politeness level. This is called inflecting the verb; the different forms of the verb are called inflections. Verbs do not change with the subject (I, you, he, they) as in many other languages (those changes in other languages are called conjugations).
  • There are two main types of verbs, plus only two irregular verbs. There are a couple of other irregularities, but they are very rare.

When verbs are listed in dictionaries, they are listed in something called the “dictionary form” or “plain form”. This form is also used in casual language. In polite language the verbs are used in a form called the “-masu form” or “polite form”. Let’s look at an example of the verb to eat, taberu

Dictionary form: たべる (taberu)

Polite form: たべます (tabemasu)

The meaning of the two forms above is the same – (I/you/he/she/we/they) eat(s) – but they have different uses. The dictionary form used for casual language, while the polite form is used for the normal polite level of speech.

Inflections

The way verbs are changed by altering the ending of the word, as in the example above, is called inflection. There are also many other verb endings that can express things like tense and negation. Let’s look at some more examples with the verb “to eat”. In this example you can see how different endings alter the meaning of the verb.

Polite form: たべます (tabemasu) – eat

Polite past form: たべました (tabemashita) – ate

Polite negative form: たべません (tabemasen) – do(es) not eat

Polite past negative form: たべませんでした (tabemasendeshita) – did not eat

There are two verbs in Japanese which are irregular in many of their inflections, suru (to do) and kuru (to come).

Apart from these, there are two main types of verbs:

  • Godan, or “u-dropping” verbs
  • Ichidan, or “ru-dropping” verbs

Godan Verbs

The name “godan” means that these verbs have five (go) different stems, one for each vowel sound. Each verb ending has a specific stem among these to which it gets attached. For example, the polite endings (-masu, -masen, -mashita, -masendeshita) mentioned above are always attached to the stem ending in the vowel sound “i”.
All verbs which do not end in the syllable ru are godan verbs. The possible last syllables are u, ku, gu, su, tsu, nu, bu and mu.
Verbs ending in -aru, -oru or -uru when written in roomaji are also godan verbs.
There are a small number of godan verbs ending in -iru or -eru when written in roomaji.
The stems of a godan verb are made by changing the final “u” (when written in roomaji) to “a”, “i”, “u”, “e” or “ou”. This is the meaning of the name “u-dropping”, but this name only makes sense when one is thinking in roomaji.
Dictionary Form
Meaning

 
Stems

 
書く
kaku
to write
kaka-, kaki- kaku-, kake-, kakou
行く
iku
 to go
ika-, iki-, iku-, ike-, ikou
読む
yomu
to read
yoma-, yomi-, yomu-, yome-, yomou
待つ
matsu
to wait
mata-, machi-, matsu-, mate-, matou
話す
hanasu
 to speak
hanasa-, hanashi-, hanasu, hanase-, hanasou
思う
omou
to think, to believe
omowa-, omoi-, omou-, omoe-, omoou

The verb 行く, iku (to go), has an irregular past tense, 行った, itta.

Note that there are some apparent spelling irregularities for -su and -tsu verbs, but these are only irregularities when thinking in roomaji spellings.
There is a genuine irregularity in the case of verbs like “omou” ending in the syllable “u”, which is that “u” changes to “wa” instead of “a” for the first stem.
Each stem has certain endings that can be attached to it; for example, the “a” stem can be followed by the plain negative ending “nai,” the plain past negative ending “nakatta,” the passive ending “reru” or the causative ending “seru,” among others. The polite endings “masu”, “masen” and so on are attached to the “i” stem.

Ichidan Verbs

All ichidan verbs end in -iru or -eru when written in roomaji. However, note that there are a few verbs ending in -iru or -eru which are godan.

The name “ichidan” means that there is only one (ichi) stem to which most endings are attached, instead of the five different stems in the case of godan verbs. The stem is obtained by dropping the final syllable -ru of the dictionary form, so these are also called “ru-dropping” verbs.

 

Dictionary Form
Meaning
 Stem
始める
hajimeru
to begin
hajime-
見る
miru
to look at, to watch
mi-
食べる
taberu
to eat
tabe-

 

Irregular Verbs

 


Dictionary
Meaning
Stems
来る
kuru
 to come
ko-, ki-, kuru-, kure-/kore-, koyou
する
suru
to do
shi-, shi-, suru-, sure-, shiyou

The verb 行く, iku (to go), also has an irregular past tense, 行った, itta.

Many verbs in Japanese consist of a noun plus the verb suru, and these verbs inflect the same way suru does. For example:

  • sentaku suru – to do laundry
  • unten suru – to drive (Lit. to do driving)

There are also some constructs using kuru, indicating a return.

  • itte kuru – to go and come back
  • motte kuru – bring something here

Some godan verbs ending in -iru or -eru

As mentioned above, there are a few verbs ending in -iru or -eru which are godan. These need to be memorized at some point. Notice that in the polite form, “ru” changes to “ri” before the “masu” ending is added (if they were ichidan verbs, the “ru” would be dropped instead).

Dictionary polite form
 polite past form (-mashita) Meaning
走る hashiru hashirimasu hashirimashita to run
入る hairu hairimasu hairimashita to enter
帰る kaeru kaerimasu kaerimashita to return
切る kiru kirimasu kirimashita to cut

Other names for groups of verbs

There are unfortunately many different names used in English texts for the different types of verbs. Godan verbs, as well as being called “u-dropping” verbs, are also called “Group 1″ verbs, or “consonant stem (c-stem)” verbs. Ichidan verbs are also called “ru-dropping” verbs, “Group 2″ verbs, or “vowel stem” verbs. The irregular verbs “suru” and “kuru” and compounds formed with them are sometimes called “Group 3″ verbs.

Personally, I find the “Group 1, Group 2″ names unhelpful, as I can never remember which is which. The names “u-dropping” and “consonant stem” only make sense when thinking in roomaji spellings, and the latter is especially confusing with verbs ending in the syllable “u”. Remembering “godan” as meaning five stems and “ichidan” as meaning one stem seems much more straightforward to me. Note that “godan” verbs were also once called “yodan” verbs (yo = 4), counting only the “a”, “i”, “u” and “e” stems.

 

Related posts:

  1. Past tense
  2. Japanese Grammar – Verbs, Particles, and Sentence Structure