Course 2, Lesson 1, Grammar Notes 1 : Verb Conjugation

[Accura]

1. Verb Conjugation

Verbs in Japanese conjugate, or take various shapes, In this lesson, we learn three forms:

(1) the "dictionary forms,"

(2) the present tense affirmative forms, and

(3) the present tense negative forms. There are two kinds of verbs that follow regular conjugation patterns, and an example of each is below.

'taberu' belongs to the roup of verbs called the "ru-verbs." Ru-verbs are so called, because you add the suffix 'ru' to the verb base (tab, in the above example) to form the dictionary form.

For the two long forms we learn in this lesson, you simply add the suffices 'mass' and 'mason', instead of 'ru', to the bases. We learn four "ru-verbs" in this lesson:

Another major group of verbs is called the "u-verbs." The dictionary form of an u-verb like 'iku' can be broken down into the base ('ik' in the avove example) and the suffix 'u'.

The long forms like 'ikimasu' and 'ikimasen', then, are formed with the base plus suffixes 'imasu' and 'imasen.'

You may find the u-verb conjugations slightly more difficult than the ru-verb conjugations, because of the extra vowel ' i '.

We learn six u-verbs in this lesson:

In later lessons, we will have many opportunities to refer to the parts like 'tabe' and 'iki', which come before 'masu' and 'masen' in the long forms.

For the sake of ease of reference, we will call these parts (same as bases with ru-verbs, and bases plus 'i' with u-verbs) "stems."

In addition to ru-verbs and u-verbs, there are two "irregular verbs." Note that the vowels in their bases are different in the short (dictionary) forms and the long forms.

These two verbs are also used to form compound verbs. In this lesson, we learn the verb 'benkousuru', which conjugates just like the verb 'suru'.

It is important to remember which verb belongs to which conjugation class. It is a good idea, therefore, to memorize each verb as a set: instead of memorizing just the dictionary form, try to memorize the dictionary form AND the present tense affirmative, like 'iku - ikimasu'.

This is especially important with verbs that end with the hiragana 'ru' , because they may be irregular verbs like suru and kuru, or ru-verbs, or u-verbs whose bases just happen to end with the consonant 'r'.

If you know the verb classes and the rules that apply to them, you know why it is wrong to say 'mirimasu (wrong)' and 'kaemasu (wrong)'.