Verb Conjugation ru-Verbs u-Verbs Indeterminancy of eru/iru-ending Verbs Irregular Verbs Some Slightly Irregular Verbs Making the Polite Present Negative Forms of Verbs Some Useful Action Verbs Japanese 1100-L10b Class Session 10b Chapter 7

Japanese 1100-L10b Verb Conjugation Compared with other foreign languages, Japanese verbs conjugate systematically There are only two irregular verbs to contend with (suru, to do and kuru, to come) Some honorific verb forms are also irregular but are not discussed in Japanese-1100 Several verbs undergo slight sound changes in some forms The copular verb desu has very different forms (and is not discussed in this chapter) Japanese is called an agglutinating language: verbs are conjugated by adding multiple suffixes to the verb stem In addition to the irregular verbs there are only two types of verbs in Japanese: ru-verbs(sometimes called ru-dropping) u-verbs(sometimes called u-dropping)

Japanese 1100-L10b ru-Verbs Most forms of ru-verbs are created after dropping the –ru from the dictionary form (plain present affirmative form) The vowel that remains after dropping –ru will always be e or i For example, the ru-verb taberu (to eat): Drop the –ru to form the stem:taberu → tabe Add nai to form the plain negativetabe + nai → tabenai Add masu to form the polite present tabe + masu→ tabemasu Add masen to form the polite negative tabe + masen → tabemasen Examples: Plain Present Plain Present Polilte Present Affirmative Negative Affirmative taberu (to eat)tabenaitabemasu neru (to sleep)nenainemasu miru (to look)minaimimasu

Japanese 1100-L10b u-verbs Most forms of u-verbs (also called u-dropping verbs) are created from their dictionary form by dropping the –u and adding one or more suffixes For example, the u-verb kaeru (to return): Drop the –u to form the stem:kaeru→ [kaer] 1 Add anai to form the plain negativekaer + anai → kaeranai Add imasu to form the polite present kaer + imasu→ kaerimasu Add masen to form the polite negative kaer + imasen → kaerimasen u-verbs end in one of the following nine hiragana letters る ru く ku ぐ gu う u つ tsu す su む mu ぬ nu ぶ bu This is conceptual only; ka-e-r is not really possible in written Japanese.

Japanese 1100-L10b Patterns of the Nine Kinds of u-verbs Plain PresentPlain PresentPlain Present AffirmativeNegativeAffirmative (Dictionary form) kaeru (to return)kaeranaikaerimasu kaku (to write)kakanaikakimasu oyogu (to swim)oyoganaioyogimasu kau (to buy)kawanaikaimasu matsu (to wait)matanaimachimasu hanasu (to speak)hanasanaihanashimasu nomu (to drink)nomanainomimasu shinu 1 (to die)shinanaishinimasu asobu (to play)asobanaiasobimasu shinu is the only verb in Japanese that ends in nu

Japanese 1100-L10b An Easy Set of Rules for u-verbs Add –imasu to the stem of a u-verb to form the polite present affirmative Add –imasen to the stem of a u-verb to form the polite present negative The dictionary form of a u-verb is the plain present affirmative form (no change) Add –anai to the stem of a u-verb to form the plain present negative form If the u-verb stem ends in a vowel (a, i, u, e, or o) add wanai to the stem to form the plain present negative form: kaukakawanai ts in the last syllable of a verb in the dictionary form becomes t when followed by a and ch when followed by the vowel i (tsu changes to ta or chi) matsumatanaimachimasu s in the last syllable of a verb in the dictionary form becomes sh when followed by the vowel i (su changes to shi) hanasuhanashimasu

Japanese 1100-L10b Indeterminancy of eru/iru-ending Verbs There are about half a dozen or so commonly used verbs that look like –ru verbs but which are really u-verbs. taberu (to eat) and kaeru (to return) both look like ru-verbs, but kaeru is a u-verb If a verb ends in eru or iru, chances are that it is an ru-verb, but, until you learn which common verbs are of each type, you cannot be sure One way to remember is to learn the masu form of the u-verbs that look like ru-verbs For example there are really two kaeru verbs: 帰る kaeru (to return) is a u-verb, so its polite present affirmative is kaerimasu 変える kaeru (to change) an ru-verb, so its polite present affirmative is kaemasu Note that the two words have different kanji so there is no confusion in written Japanese

Japanese 1100-L10b Irregular Verbs The two common irregular verbs are suru (to do) and kuru (to come) Being irregular, they do not follow the rules for either ru-verbs or u-verbs You must memorize the patterns of these two verbs, which are as follows: PlainPlain Polite Polite PresentPresent Present Present AffirmativeNegative Affirmative Negative surushinai shimasu shimasen kurukonai kimasu kimasen

Japanese 1100-L10b Some Slightly Irregular Verbs The verb aru (to exist) is a u-verb, but its plain present negative form is nai, NOT aranai The verb irassharu (to exist, honorific form) is a u-verb, but its polite present affirmative form is irasshaimasu NOT irassharimasu

Japanese 1100-L10b Making the Polite Present Negative Forms of Verbs When you know how to make the polite present affirmative (masu) form of verbs, it is easy to make the polite present negative form The negative counterpart of the masu suffix is masen, so just replace masu with masen taberu tabemasu tabemasen iku ikimasu ikimasen kaeru kaerimasu kaerimasen

Japanese 1100-L10b Some Useful Action Verbs tabe-ru to eat ne-ruto sleep nom-uto drink tsukur-uto make kak-uto write mi-ruto look yom-uto read kik-uto listen hanas-uto speak