Grammar Part 2: Conjugation
The vast majority of this page is about verb conjugation. More than anything else, this page illustrates how my approach to language instruction is different from the norm. Here I literally attempt to list every single verb form in the entire language (and some other stuff), whereas a normal textbook would likely spend multiple pages if not entire chapters on each one of these forms (and probably never mention a lot of them).
Obviously, I don't expect you to memorize them all anytime soon. I doubt anyone could without seeing all of them in source material a number of times. So feel free to digest this material at whatever pace you like.
However, the order definitely matters, so don't skip or skim any sections.
You should also be aware that what I describe here, which I call the "gaijin model", is not how the Japanese themselves describe Japanese verb conjugation. They use what I call the "jodoushi model", which is very good for older forms of Japanese but kinda bad with modern Japanese, so I introduce it in the Old Japanese supplment.
The Basic Verb Forms
Negative and Polite Forms
-te Forms
Modal -te Forms
-i Forms
Compound Verbs
Conjugation Examples
Advanced Verbs Forms and Uses
-ra Form
Conjunctive -te
-tari Form
Modal Implications of Conditional Forms
Adjective Conjugation
Spelling Conjugated Verbs
More Conjugation Examples
The Basic Verb Forms
Every Japanese verb, in its infinitive form, ends with a "u" sound. This means it could end in any kana which happens to have a "u" sound. I call that kana its verb type. For instance, かく is a ku-type verb, はしる a ru-type verb, つかう an u-type verb, and so on.
The type of a verb determines precisely which kana each conjugated form will be spelled with. However, it has absolutely no effect on the meaning of those forms or the verb itself, so you can ignore the details of spelling conjugated verbs for quite some time (hence I put that section near the bottom). For now, what you want to focus on is the ability to recognize a given form on any verb type.
The basic verb forms you absolutely must know are:
| Verb Form | Ends in... | In English, it means... | Example |
| Infinitive/Nonpast Form | "u" | "to _" or "will _" (nonpast = either present or future) | なる |
| Negative Form | "nai", occasionally just "n" | "to not _" | ならない, occasionally ならん |
| Polite Form | "masu" | no meaning, only formality | なります |
| Past Form | "ta", "tta" or "da" | past tense, "_ed" | なった |
| -te Form | "te" or "de" | can be a mild command, but usually part of a complex form | なって |
| Imperative/Command Form | "e" | indicates a strong command | なれ |
| Volitional Form | "ou" | indicates eagerness or willingness, a little like "I'll _" or "Let's _". | なろう |
| Conditional Form | "eba" | "if _" | なれば |
| Passive Form | "areru" | Usually "to be _ed" (details later) | なられる |
| Potential Form | "eru" | "to be able to _" | なれる |
| -i Form | "i" | can be a gerund, but usually part of a complex form | なり |
| Causative Form | "aseru" | Usually "to make _" or "to let _" (details later) | ならせる |
When I say a verb form "ends in" something like "areru" I do not necessarily mean the kana あれる. I mean the sounds. Verbs in the passive form could end with the kana される, われる, られる, かれる, たれる, ばれる, まれる, なれる, or がれる, depending on verb type. Again, recognition is what's important here. Get to the point where seeing all of those kana as the same verb form comes naturally, then worry about how to conjugate each verb yourself. Similarly, the meanings column is a bit ambiguous because Japanese conjugation is unaffected by grammatical person. So my "to not _" could easily mean "I won't _", "You won't _", "He won't _", "They won't _" and so on. Here are a few random examples:
| 私は | 読める | 走る | 食べさせる | 見られる | 書いた | します |
| I... | can read | run/will run | make _ eat | am seen | wrote | do/will do |
It's also very common for verbs to be conjugated into more than one form at a time:
| 私は | 読めない | 食べさせた | 見られます |
| I... | can't read | made _ eat | am seen |
Once you know all of the common forms, it's possible to conjugate a single verb several times in a row.
Now for some miscellanea:
Negative and Polite Forms
| Verb Form | Ends in... | In English, it means... |
| Negative Form | "nai" | "to not _" |
| Colloquial Negative Form | "ne" or "nee" | "to not _", usually used by young men |
| Past Negative Form | "nakatta" | "did not _" |
| Negative Conditional Form | "nakereba", "nakya", "neba" or "nai to" | "if not _" |
| Negative Command Form | infinitive plus "na" | "don't _" |
| Negative Volitional Form | infinitive plus "mai" | "unwilling to _" or "unlikely to _" |
| Negative -te Form | "naide" | can be a mild negative command or part of a complex form |
| Adjectival Negative Form | くない instead of い | "not _", for adjectives and some verb forms |
| Polite Form | "masu" | no meaning, only formality |
| Negative Polite Form | "masen" | "to not _" with formality |
| Past Polite Form | "mashita" | "did _" with formality |
| Past Negative Polite Form | "masendeshita" | "did not _" with formality |
| Volitional Polite Form | "mashou" | "let's _" with formality |
-te Forms
| Verb Form | In English, it means... |
| -temo | "even if", "no matter" (often forms English's "_ever" pronouns; e.g. どこ＿ても = whereever I _) |
| -te iru or -teru | "to be _ing" |
| -te ita or -teta | "was _ing" or "have been _ing" |
| -te aru | "to be _ing" or "to be/exist in a [verb]ed state" |
| -te hoshii | "want _ to _", indicates a desire for someone else to perform the action (contrast with -i tai) |
| -te oku or -toku | "to _ in advance/for later" |
| -te shimau, -chimau or -chau | can mean "to finish _ing"/"to end", can indicate the action is regrettable or unfortunate, or (especially with -chau) may be used just because it sounds cute |
| -te yagaru | indicates contempt for the subject or hatred of the action |
| -te miru | "to try _ing", specifically "to try _ and see what happens" |
| -te iku or -te yuku | "to keep _ing" |
| -te tamaru | "to be able to stand _ing", often used to mean things like "how can I _?" or "I can't just _" |
| -te kakeru | "to start _ing" or "to almost _" |
| -te kiru | "to finish _ing" or "to completely _" |
| -te kuru | "to go/come and _" or "to _ and go/come" |
| -te wa or -cha | "if/then/in the case of _", probably identical to the word じゃ |
There are some other verbs and adjectives which can be placed after the -te form, but their meanings in this case are identical to their normal meanings and thus there is absolutely no need to list them. Admittedly, the -te kuru form is usually like this, but it happens to be extremely common and occasionally gets used a bit oddly.
Modal -te Forms
Here are what I call the "modal" -te forms, because they're the closest thing I know of to explicit grammatical modes in Japanese. Unsurprisingly, these are probably the hardest ones to explain or understand. It may be best to find an example or two in source material before trying to make sense out of these.
| Verb Form | In English, it means... |
| -te ageru or -tageru | literally "to give", sometimes adapted as "_ for you" indicates an action the speaker performed for the benefit of another may express benevolence or generosity |
| -te kureru | literally "to give", sometimes adapted as "_ for me" indicates an action someone performed for the speaker's benefit may express gratitude or appreciation |
| -te morau | literally "to take", sometimes adapted as "have you _" indicates an action the speaker performed for his or her own benefit, often as the expense of someone else may express dominance or control |
-i Forms
| Verb Form | In English, it means... |
| -i | being a gerund, it's often best defined as "the act of _ing", and occasionally as "one who _s" |
| -i masu | this is the same Polite Form defined earlier |
| -i tai | "want to _", indicates a desire to perform the action oneself (contrast with its passive form, -te hoshii) |
| -i nasai or -i na | a softer (usually feminine) command form, often with a chiding nuance |
| -i tamae | a command form used by those with higher social status |
| -i [adjective] | "[adjective] to _", for example 読み難い = "hard to read" |
| -i ni [verb] | "[verb] in order to _", for example 走りに行く = "to go somewhere to run" |
Compound Verbs
The last important -i form is simply putting a verb after it, which creates what I call a "compound verb." Since this can be done between virtually any two verbs, many of the -te forms listed above can also be made using the -i form, and it's worth showing a whole table of examples. So here I've listed a few very common ones, plus all the ones I know of that have special meanings. You may notice that Japanese compound verbs often correspond to English phrasal verbs.
| Verb Form | In English, it means... |
| -i komu | "to _ into" or "to _ over" |
| -i dasu | "to _ out" or "to _ away" |
| -i naosu | "to re_" or "_ again" or "to correct something by _ing" |
| -i au | "to _ each other" |
| -i ageru | "to _ up" (notice this has nothing to do with -te ageru) |
| -i sugiru | "to overdo _" or "to do _ too much" or "to do _ too often" |
| -i tate | "something which has just been _ed" |
| -i makuru | "to do _ with reckless abandon," or when that makes no sense "to _ to a ridiculous extent" |
| -i kakaru | "to be on the verge of _ing" or "to _ at/to/toward someone or something" |
| -i ppanasu | "to _ and then leave that way" |
| -i kaneru and -i kanenai | "to be unable to _" and "to be unable to not _" |
| -i sokoneru | "to be prevented from _ing" and "to fail to _" |
Conjugation Examples
That is all of the verb forms you might have to learn to reach Conversational Fluency. Now here's a bunch of examples of conjugating multiple times in a row:
走る to run → 走って run → 走っていく to keep running → 走っていこう let's keep running
言う to say → 言われる to be said → 言われ act of _ being said → 言われたい to want _ to be said → 言われたくない to not want _ to be said
作る to make → 作って make → 作ってくれる to make _ for me → 作ってくれて make _ for me → 作ってくれてありがとう thank you for making _ for me
笑う to laugh → 笑い act of laughing → 笑いあう to laugh at each other → 笑いあえる to be able to laugh at each other → 笑いあえれば if _ can laugh at each other
見る to see → 見 act of seeing → 見に行く to go to see → 見に行って go to see → 見に行ってあげる to go see _ for someone → 見に行ってあげて go see _ for someone → 見に行ってあげてしまう regrettably go see _ for someone → 見に行ってあげてしまった regrettably went to see _ for someone
With enough experience, things like たくない, しまった and ってあげる will start to feel like single steps, and even conjugations like 見に行ってあげてしまった will become natural, despite the fact that English can never conjugate a single verb that much.
Now for a bunch of example sentences using conjugated verbs. The format here is the same as before, though since I'm using a lot more verb forms, it's worth explicitly stating that each step of conjugation is done on a separate line in the breakdown (though you may have noticed that already).
You may be wondering if there are any rules there are governing the order which forms can be applied to verbs. There definitely are, but I don't think it's worth the effort to try and come up with a set of rules myself, or make you learn one. The language is very consistent with what orders it chooses, so by the time you've mastered the forms themselves, you'll have naturally picked up more than enough of the ordering rules.
Advanced Verbs Forms and Uses
Up until now, I've been defining each form with one sentence or less. Now we're going to look at the forms where that simply isn't an option, as well as some additional uses of forms you already know. For the most part, this is because these forms affect the meaning of the entire sentence and not just that of the verb, which makes them significantly more difficult.
-ra Form
Either the infinitive plus "nara" or the past plus "ra" (usually "tara"). "nara" usually means "if _" and applies to the entire clause, not just the verb, while "tara" tends to mean "if/when" and applies to just the verb. The conditional "eba" form is different from both in that it has no temporal implications. It's hard to explain this with examples, but:
店に行けば買うかも。 = If _ goes to the store _ might buy it.
店に行くなら買うかも。 = If _ is going/will go to the store then _ might buy it.
店に行ったら買うかも。 = "_ might buy it if/when _ goes to the store." or "If _ went to the store _ might buy it."
Conjunctive -te and -i
Yet another use of the -te form (and slightly less often, the -i form). If a verb in the -te form isn't part of some complex form, and a mild command makes no sense, then the -te is meant to act as a conjunction (specifically "and") between this verb and whatever verb comes next. Two or more verbs may be connected in this way (keep using -te until the last one), and there may or may not be other words between them. Also, these -te verbs effectively borrow their tense/mood/etc. from the final verb in the sentence.
走って勝った = _ ran and won
落ち着いて考えれば = If _ calms down and thinks
起きて、学校に行って、帰って、眠りたいだけ = _ just wants to wake up, go to school, come home, and sleep
As a side note, a -te form by itself can sometimes be an indicator of uncertainty rather than a mild command. I believe that's a result of this conjunctive -te, but that's debatable.
The quasi-particle し can also be placed after a verb (in various forms) or an adjective to do basically the same things.
-tari Form
Spelling it is easy: it's the past form with り added. Understanding it isn't much harder. I interpret it as a series of actions taken as a single whole. It may also help to see it as a tendency or disposition to perform the action, or as an action repeated or spread out over a long period of time. Strangely, English tends to implicitly take care of this nuance for you, so translating it is simply a matter of using the generic mood. Also, this form is just as conjunctive as the -te form.
忘れたりけど、まだできる。 I may forget things, but I can still do it.
君は戦ったり勝ったり幸せになる。 You find happiness in fighting and winning.
Modal Implications of Conditional Forms
The basic idea is that after certain verb forms (usually conditionals) you can place a word meaning either "good" or "bad." Sometimes, this makes perfect sense if you understand conditionals to begin with. Other times, it seems odd because the meanings of certain popular combinations have drifted much closer to modal words like "should" or "must." The main ones to be wary of are:
| Conditional-esque Form(s) | "good"/"bad" Word(s) | Meaning |
| 〜temo | いい | "may _" or "can _" |
| 〜eba/[infinitive] ga | いい | "should" or "can (without difficulty)" |
| 〜te | ならない | "must", "need to" or "have to" |
| 〜nakereba/neba/nakya/nakute/nai to | いけない/ならない/だめ | "must", "need to" or "have to" |
| 〜nakereba/neba/nakya/nakute/nai to | いい | "don't need to" or "don't have to" |
Some of the conditional forms listed above will look new or strange. This is largely because [infinitive]が and [negative]と are used almost exclusively for these modal uses. That and "nakute" is a result of adjective conjugation (the next section).
The genuinely tricky part is that the word for good/bad might be implied, giving you lines like "if I don't go..." which actually mean "I have to go." This is probably the single easiest way to get a line completely wrong without even knowing you're missing something.
Adjective Conjugation
Japanese is kinda weird in that it lets adjectives have tense and mood to some degree, but it's not hard to learn since you already know verb conjugation. Yes, it technically should be called adjective declension, but it's so similar to conjugation that I prefer to call it that instead. By the way, all Japanese adjectives end in either い or な, hence "-i adjective" and "-na adjective". First, -i adjectives:
| Default form | 早い（はやい） | fast |
| Negative form | 早くない | not fast |
| Past form | 早かった | was fast |
| -te form | 早くて or 早いし | fast (always a conjunctive -te, never a command or part of a complex form) |
| Adverb | 早く | fastly/quickly |
| Noun form | 早さ | fastness/speed |
| Apparent form | 早そう | seems fast/seemingly fast/likely to be fast |
| Negative Apparent form | 早くなさそう | seems not fast/seemingly not fast |
| Conditional form | 早ければ | if _ is fast |
As for な adjectives (which are often just nouns with な attached), the only forms they can have are な, じゃない, だった, そう and さ. It should be obvious what those mean without a separate chart. The gobi だ can also become だった or じゃない in a verbless clause or sentence.
Now the weird part: a few verb forms are technically adjectives. Specifically, the negative (nai) form, the -i tai form, and the -te hoshii form (but definitely not the -i form) can be further conjugated this way, as well as ない and じゃない themselves. In fact, the "past negative" -nakatta and "negative conditional" -nakereba forms listed above (as well as the "negative adverb" -naku form) are merely the most common ways in which adjective conjugation affects verb forms. So expect to see lots of stuff like -i たくない and -te ほしかった.
There's also a "-garu form" where the い changes to がる, and the result is a verb meaning "to feel that _ is _". I didn't list this because it's only ever used on a small subset of adjectives that can be easily interpreted as feelings. For instance, 寂しがる means "to feel that _ is lonely" and 不思議がる means "to feel that _ is strange/mysterious", but no one would ever say 早がる.
Some miscellaneous comments:
Spelling Conjugated Verbs
Ichidan versus Godan
一段 ichidan and 五段 godan are the two major categories the Japanese break their verbs into. Ichidan consist of about half of the "ru" type verbs, and are labeled as "1ru" in the chart below. All other verbs are godan, including the other "ru" verbs which I labeled "5ru." Thankfully, ichidan verbs always end in either "eru" or "iru," which makes their odd forms a little easier to recognize.
As for telling what's ichi and what's go, you're screwed. There's absolutely no way to tell other than memorization or experience (although edict entries will conveniently indicate them with v1 and v5).
Now that you know that, all the verb types in the following chart should make sense to you.
Conjugation Chart
| Verb Type | Nonpast | Negative | Polite | Past | -te Form | Command | Volitional | Conditional | Passive | Potential | -i Form | Causative |
| irregular | する | しない | します | した | して | しろ・せよ | しよう | すれば | される | できる | し | させる |
| irregular | くる | こない | きます | きた | きて | こい | きよう | くれば | こられる | これる | き・きし | こさせる |
| "1ru" type | 食べる | 食べない | 食べます | 食べた | 食べて | 食べれ・食べろ | 食べよう | 食べれば | 食べられる | 食べられる | 食べ | 食べさせる |
| "5ru" type | 走る | 走らない | 走ります | 走った | 走って | 走れ | 走ろう | 走れば | 走られる | 走れる | 走り | 走らせる |
| "tsu" type | 待つ | 待たない | 待ちます | 待った | 待って | 待て | 待てよう | 待てれば | 待たれる | 待てる | 待ち | 待たせる |
| "bu" type | 遊ぶ | 遊ばない | 遊びます | 遊んだ | 遊んで | 遊べ | 遊ぼう | 遊べば | 遊ばれる | 遊べる | 遊び | 遊ばせる |
| "mu" type | 読む | 読まない | 読みます | 読んだ | 読んで | 読め | 読もう | 読めば | 読まれる | 読める | 読み | 読ませる |
| "ku" type | 書く | 書かない | 書きます | 書いた | 書いて | 書け | 書こう | 書けば | 書かれる | 書ける | 書き | 書かせる |
| "nu" type | 死ぬ | 死なない | 死にます | 死んだ | 死んで | 死ね | 死のう | 死ねば | 死なれる | 死ねる | 死 | 死なせる |
| "gu" type | 泳ぐ | 泳がない | 泳ぎます | 泳いだ | 泳いで | 泳げ | 泳ごう | 泳げば | 泳がれる | 泳げる | 泳ぎ | 泳がせえる |
| "su" type | 示す | 示さない | 示します | 示した | 示して | 示せ | 示そう | 示せば | 示される | 示せる | 示し | 示させる |
| "u" type | 使う | 使わない | 使います | 使った | 使って | 使え | 使おう | 使えば | 使われる | 使える | 使い | 使わせる |
Columns for the more complex forms are completely unnecessary once you know that the polite form is a "su" type verb, the negative form is an adjective, and the causative/passive/potential forms are all "1ru" type verbs. Now for another list of little details to watch out for:
More Conjugation Examples
You know the drill by now. Expect more complex and potentially confusing conjugation this time. The translations will now use slashes and parenthesis to help clarify intent.
Next is Grammar Part 3: Clauses.