Verbs
This article introduces Japanese verbs and the ways they inflect (change form).
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Japanese Verbs at a Glance
Another handy pocket-size book by Naoko Chino, this time covering verbs, verb endings and the modifiers that enables you to say what you want. Easy to read, and covers a lot of aspects on how to use verbs - and that is a large part of the Japanese grammar.
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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.
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Dictionary Form |
Meaning
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Stems
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書く
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kaku
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to write
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kaka-, kaki- kaku-, kake-, kakou
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行く
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iku
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to go |
ika-, iki-, iku-, ike-, ikou
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読む
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yomu
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to read
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yoma-, yomi-, yomu-, yome-, yomou
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待つ
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matsu
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to wait
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mata-, machi-, matsu-, mate-, matou
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話す
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hanasu
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to speak
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hanasa-, hanashi-, hanasu, hanase-, hanasou
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思う
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omou
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to think, to believe
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omowa-, omoi-, omou-, omoe-, omoou
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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.
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.
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Dictionary Form
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Meaning
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Stem |
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始める
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hajimeru
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to begin
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hajime-
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見る
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miru
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to look at, to watch
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mi-
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食べる
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taberu
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to eat
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tabe-
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Irregular Verbs
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Dictionary
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Meaning
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Stems
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来る
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kuru
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to come |
ko-, ki-, kuru-, kure-/kore-, koyou
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する
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suru
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to do
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shi-, shi-, suru-, sure-, shiyou
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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 make laundry (Lit. 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).
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Dictionary |
polite form
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polite past form (-mashita) |
Meaning |
走る
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hashiru
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hashirimasu
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hashirimashita
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to run
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入る
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hairu
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hairimasu |
hairimashita |
to enter
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帰る
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kaeru
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kaerimasu |
kaerimashita |
to return
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切る
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kiru
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kirimasu |
kirimashita |
to cut
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The verb 行く, iku (to go), also has an irregular past tense, 行った, itta.
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.
Read more
Read more about verbs in the lessons on this site, or at any of the pages in our language reference section.
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Yes, verbs do change form (inflect) to indicate different tenses, as they do in English.
As for saying "ate", one way, the normal polite form, is given on this page, in the section entitled "Inflections": tabemashita. There is also a plain past form, tabeta, but that is discussed on another page of the website: http://www.studyjapanese.org/content/view/56/63/
The verb stems are used for making many other forms of a verb; for example, "didn't want to eat" is formed by adding the ending -takunakatta to the stem tabe-, resulting in tabetakunakatta. As you can see in this example, some meanings which require phrases consisting of several words and at least two verbs in English are expressed by a single inflection of the main verb in Japanese.
The details of some of these other inflections of verbs are found on pages in the Language Reference Section of the site, listed under "Verbs" on the main page of that section:
http://www.studyjapanese.org/language-reference
An extended message like this would be better placed in the language section of the discussion forum than here.
Tasukeru is ichidan, which means that it has only 1 (ichi) stem, tasuke- . You are treating it as if the verb were tasuku, which is a godan verb (5 stems).
The polite forms are tasukemasu, tasukemashita, tasukemasen, tasukemasendeshita, tasukemashou; the corresponding plain forms are tasukeru, tasuketa, tasukenai, tasukenakatta, tasukeyou. Note that all of these forms share the stem tasuke- .
tetsudau is indeed godan, and so has the five different stems tetsudawa-, tetsudai, tetsudau, tetsudae, tetsudaou. Notice that it is the last syllable -u which changes; the "da" is not part of the last syllable. So the two forms you were looking for were tetsudaimasen and tetsudawanai. Note the irregularity in the stem ending in the vowel sound "a" for this verb whose last syllable is -u; this is mentioned in the article.
I know that what you just said is the "plain" inflection of tasukeru, an ichidan verb. I was going for the polite inflection, but I don't think that matters unless there's a rule behind not using the polite in this case. so, the polite form would be
"Don't help me" (politely)
watashi o tasukemasen.
(ke would stay ke because its ichidan,right?)
whereas, "Don't help me" (Plain).
watashi o tasukenai.
However... "tetsudau" is goden right? so we change the stems.
polite:
watashi o tetsudimasen (change it to da to it's i-stem di)
or plain:
watashi o tetsudanai. (leave it's a-stem).
easier than i thought but thanks a lot!! Made me look more deeply into it :D
watashi o tasukenai de kudasai.
or
watashi o tetsudawanai de kudasai.
tetsudau - tetsudawanai, tetsudai, tetsudae, tetsudatte...
Now... This seems kinda complicated for some reason.
watashi o tasukemasen onegaishimasu... (me *direct object* + neg verb + please) - my translation lol.
shitekudasai, tasuketeimasen. (got this from google translation? this sounds more right...)
also i have no clue how to conjugate tetsudau?
tetsudaa? tetsudae? tetsudai? ...ect?
It is true, however, that some inflections of verbs and adjectives can get kind of long; for example, "tabetakunakatta" means "(I) didn't want to eat"-- tabetai = "(I) want to eat", "tabetakunai" = "(I) don't want to eat" (i -> kunai to form the negative), "tabetakunakatta" = "(I) didn't want to eat" (nai -> nakatta to form the past tense).
But hopefully I can understand this all. :D