Verb Forms

There are a lot of different forms for verbs in Japanese implying lots of different things about the verb.

The first thing to note about this is that there are 3 different groups of verbs and each will conjugate in a different manner. Type 2, the -ru verbs are often the easiest to conjugate as they will often just involve replacing the ending with the desired new verb ending form. Type 1 are slightly more complicated as the are often dependent on changing the final vowel as well as conjugating the verb. Type 3 are irregular but only consist of 2 words; 来る (kuru) and する (suru).

The dictionary form
This is the most basic form of all Japanese verbs. It is called the dictionary form because it is the form that is used in the dictionary. This form is used in informal conversation to represent a verb in the present positive form.

The distinguishing feature of this form is that all of the verbs end in a -u in the form.
As stated before Type 2 verbs are very uniform and all end in -ru in this form.
Examples of Type 2 verbs are 食べる(tabeRU), 見る (miRU) and 起きる (okiRU).
In order to change Type 1 verbs into dictionary form the last letter has to be -u.
For example to change a Type 1 verb from the -masu form to dictionary form:
飲みます (nomIMASU) - IMASU + U = 飲む (nomU).
The Type 3 words in dictionary form are 来る(kuru) and する (suru)

-Te form
The -te form is used for a lot of different things. When a verb is in the -te imasu form it means that the verb is present continuous. Then the verb is in the -te (kudasai) form it is an order.
So for example 薬を飲んでください (kusuri o nonde kudasai) means please drink the medicine but 薬を飲んでいます (kusuri o nonde imasu) means drinking the medicine.
To make Type 2 verbs into -te form the -ru is replaced by -te.

• 食べる becomes 食べて
• 見る becomes 見て
• 起きるbecomes 起きて 

Type 1 has 5 different ways that they can become -te form:

• Verbs that end in i, chi or ri when in the masu form become tte. Eg 待ちます(machimasu) becomes 待って (matte)
• Verbs that end in ni, bi or mi become nde so 死にます(shinimasu) becomes 死んで (shinde)
• Verbs that end in ki have the ki replaced with ite such as 歩きます(arukimasu) would be 歩いて (aruite) in -te form
• Verbs that end in gi are replaced with ide so 泳ぎます (oyogimasu) becomes 泳いで (oyoide)
• Verbs that end in shi become shite which means  かします (kashimasu) becomes かして (kashite)

Type 3 would take 来る(kuru) and it becomes 来て (kite) and する (suru) become して (shite)