Lesson 9 – Conjugating Japanese Verbs

Past, Negative and Polite

The stem form verbs (or dictionary form as they are also named) as listed in Lesson 8 are considered ‘plain, casual and present’ verbs. Meaning you can use them as is but only for, casual and present tense.

You’re going to want to at least learn negative, past, and ‘polite’ verbs (Yes, there are casual and polite conjugations).

In this lesson we’re going to take up: Past, Negative and Polite conjugations of Japanese Verbs.

All Japanese verbs have a ‘stem’ or standard form and four other ‘conjugated’ forms. The stem form of a Japanese verb will always end with the letter ‘u’. The conjugated forms end with ‘a’, ‘i’, ‘e’ and ‘o’ respectively. How do you conjugate the stem ‘u’ verb into one of the other four? SIMPLE. The following Japanese Alphabet chart shows five columns, each one by vowel. You’ll notice that the third column is the ‘u’ column, find your verb’s ‘consonant-vowl’ ending (for example ‘tsu’) and then, look horizontally and you’ll behold the five different conjugations for that verb ending with ‘tsu’!!!

To help clarify this we have prepared a complete Japanese Alphabet for your convenience. [Download]

Notice that ‘a’ is in the first column, ‘i’ is second, ‘u’, is third, ‘e’ is forth, and ‘o’ is fifth. We call verbs in the ‘u’ column ‘third form verbs’ as they are in the third column. Verbs in the ‘a’ column: first form. Verbs in the ‘i’ column: second form.

Polite

How to make Present Positive Polite:

  1. To make a verb polite, take the ‘stem’ (meaning the verb as it is, just ending in ‘u’)
  2. Determine if the verb is Ichidan or Yodan
  3. If Ichidan, remove the ‘ru’ and add on ‘masu’
  4. If Yodan, convert the last consonant-vowel pair form its present ‘u’ form to the ‘i’ form. How do you do this? SIMPLE, refer to the Japanese Alphabet Chart, and notice the columns are arranged by vowl: a,i,u,e,o. Find your verb in the ‘u’ column and look at its equivalent horizontally in the ‘i’ column and that is how you conjugate it for the present polite!!! Its almost like using a multiplication table. 

 

To help clarify this we have prepared a complete Japanese Alphabet for your convenience. [Download]

This tells you at once how to take any Yodan verb and conjugate it into any of the 5 vowel forms!

Ichidan:

Taberu = tabemasu
Miru = mimasu

Yodan:

For the sake of clarity, the verbs are broken up so you can see where the conjugation is happening:

Ka-u – Ka-i-masu
Ka-ku – Ka-ki-masu
Ma-tsu – Ma-chi-masu
Hana-su – Hana-shi-masu
Iso-gu – Iso-gi-masu
To-ru - To-ri-masu
No-mu – No-mi-masu
Shi-nu – shi-ni-masu

As you can see conjugating the Ichidan verbs is a no brainer, just hack off the ‘ru’ and add on ‘masu’. For the Yodan it is also pretty simple.

Irregular:

There is no logic behind the irregulars so you just have to memorize them:

Kuru – kimasu
Suru – shimasu

Polite, Present Negative

Want to make these negative? Follow the SAME drill for all three verb types, but instead of ‘masu’ add ‘masen’. The ‘masen’ is Polite Present Negative. (This applies also to the irregulars)

Tabemasen = not eat
Hanashimasen = not speak

Polite, Past Affirmative

Piece of cake. Follow the SAME drill for the three verb types, and this time instead of ‘masu’ put: “mashita”. (This applies also to the irregulars)

Tabemasen = ate
Hanashimasen = spoke

Polite, Past Negative
Easy. Follow the SAME drill again, and instead of ‘masu’ put ‘masen deshita’ (This applies also to the irregulars)

Tabemasen deshita = did not eat
Hanashimasen deshita = did not speak

This covers the Polite verbs in past, present, negative and affirmative.

Casual

You’ve got to know both casual and polite.  

Present Affirmative Casual

Our stem verbs are already this by default! So we don’t have to do any conjugations at all. Just use the verb in its ‘u’ form straight up with no alterations.

How to make Present Negative Casual:

  1. Take the ‘stem’ (meaning the verb as it is, just ending in ‘u’)
  2. Determine if the verb is Ichidan or Yodan
  3. If Ichidan, remove the ‘ru’ and add on ‘nai’
  4. If Yodan, convert the last consonant-vowel pair form its present ‘u’ form to the ‘a’ form. How do you do this? SIMPLE, refer to the Japanese Alphabet Chart, and notice the columns are arranged by vowl: a,i,u,e,o. Find your verb in the ‘u’ column and look at its equivalent horizontally in the ‘a’ column and that is how you conjugate it and then add ‘nai’ for the present casual negative!

Ichidan:
Taberu = tabenai

Yodan:
Hanasu = hanasanai

Irregulars:
Suru = shita nai
Kuru = kita nai

Past Casual Affirmative

Follow exact same steps as above, but instead of adding ‘nai’ add: ‘ta’

Ichidan:
Taberu = tabeta

Yodan:
Hanasu = hanasata

Irregulars:
Suru = shita
Kuru = kita

Past Casual Negative

Follow exact same steps as above, but instead of adding ‘nai’ add: ‘nakatta’

Ichidan:
Taberu = tabenakatta

Yodan:
Hanasu = hanasanakatta

Irregulars:
Suru = shinakatta
Kuru = kinakatta

Key Points:

Learn to use the Alphabet Chart to convert ‘u’ verbs into the other columns

As you can see it is key to know if your verb is Ichidan or Yodan, because it will determine how you conjugate it.

Next: Lesson 10 – Putting it all together