List Of Japanese Verbs — Part One
This is part one in an on-going list of Japanese verbs that I will publish on this site. I will create more lists of Japanese verbs in the future. There is no grading about most commonly or least commonly used, I will just add them as I think of them.
So, without further ado, here they are:
Japanese Verbs Video
I think one of the most important things to learn when learning Japanese or any other foreign language is to pick up as many verbs as you can. It’s important to learn about some basic Japanese verbs, before even worrying too much about picking up sentence patterns and other words.
See, Show, Look In Japanese
There are a few “seeing” verbs in Japanese that are useful in everyday Japanese conversation.
They are:
How To Explain That You Already Understand In Japanese
Hey there!
This one is a very short lesson.
You probably know by now how to say ”I understand” or “I don’t understand”.
If not:
wakaru/wakarimasu is understand
wakaranai/wakarimasen is don’t understand
Commonly, in Japanese, you will hear people answer wakarimashita (lit. I understood what you said). Informally they will say the past tense dictionary version: wakatta.
But what if someone tells you something that you already understand or already know?
wakarimashita is no good in this situation because it indicates that you have understood what the other person said.
In this case, so the person realizes they didn’t need to tell you, you can answer: wakatteimasu
wakatteimasu is best used in the situations where you would say “I already know that” or “yes, I know” in English. Probably not best used with your Japanese boss though 
See you in the next lesson.
David
Learn Japanese Volitional Verbs
Hey everyone.
Today we are going to learn Japanese volitional verbs.
Sounds nasty? Not really…
This will allow you to describe what you are thinking of doing.
First we have to learn how to convert a normal verb from the -masu form to the volitional form.
Here goes:
GROUP I Verbs (from -masu form)
Change the stem (the stuff prior to the masu). Drop the “i” and add “ou”.
For example, ikimasu becomes ikou, yasumimasu becomes yasumou
GROUP 2 Verbs (from -masu form)
These are simple (I wish they were all like this).
Just drop the masu and add you (pronounced as you in the English word your)
For example, tabemasu becomes tabeyou, mimasu becomes miyou.
GROUP 3 (from -masu form)
The evil exceptions!
Fortunately there are just two: shimasu (do) and kimasu (come).
shimasu becomes shiyou and kimasu becomes coyou.
If you need a refresher of Japanese verbs and their groups see the following lesson: http://thejapaneseproject.com/?p=15
So, now that you can create a volitional Japanese verb, we can talk about something we are thinking of doing.
For example:
1. I am thinking of going to Kyoto this weekend
- or -
2. I am thinking of reading that book
In Japanese:
1. tsugi no shuumastsu wa kyoto ni ikou to omoimasu
2. sono hon wa yomou to omoimasu
Let’s break these volitional verbs structure down:
tsugi next
no possessive particle (like ['s] in English
shuumatsu weekend
wa topic marker (as for)
kyoto Kyoto
ni direction particle (to)
ikou volitional form of ikimasu (to go)
to omoimasu to think
sono that
hon book
yomou volition form of yomimasu (to read)
As a test, translate this sentence to Japanese:
I am thinking of drinking a beer.
Okay, so if you have any questions leave me a comment.
Test answer:
watashi wa biiru o nomou to omoimasu
See you next time.
David
Learn Japanese Verbs PDF Lesson
Hi there!
Today I have another PDF e-book lesson for you to download.
This one uses super memory too.
It is a short lesson about Japanese verbs to show you the power of studying word lists this way.
So, without further ado, you can download your copy by right-clicking on the link below and selecting Save As.
http://www.thejapaneseproject.com/japaneseverbs.pdf
See you next time,
David
Telling and Teaching in Japanese
Hey everyone,
Following on from giving and receiving we are going to talk about learning and teaching.
There is a nice verb in Japanese that means teach and also tell, eg. “teach me mathematics” or “tell me the secret”.
The verb is:
oshieru
Today we will look at how who teaches (or tells) who.
Let’s look at a picture:
yamada sensei wa tanaka kun ni eigo o oshiete agemasu
tanaka kun wa yamada sensei ni eigo o oshiete moraimasu
In English:
Ms Yamada teaches Tanaka English.
Tanaka learns English from Ms Yamada.
Let’s break it down:
sensei teacher
kun added as a suffix to boy’s names
wa topic particle (as for)
ni direction particle (to)
o/wo direct object particle (modified by a verb)
eigo English language
agemasu/ageru give
moraimasu/morau receive
oshiete teach/tell (-te form of oshieru)
And so endeth the lesson
If you have any questions please leave a comment.
Cheers,
David
Learn to Give and Receive in Japanese
Today we are going to give and receive in Japanese.
Let’s look at a picture.
Okay, so you can see that Tanaka is giving Yamamoto some money.
So, there are two ways that we can phrase this:
1. tanaka san wa yamamoto san ni okane o agemasu
2. yamamoto san wa tanaka san ni okane o moraimasu
OK. So how about some translations.
1. Mr Tanaka gives money to Mr Yamamoto.
2. Mr Yamamoto receives money from Mr Tanaka.
Let’s break down the words we used here:
san honorific suffix (like Mr/Ms)
wa topic particle (as for)
ni direction particle (to)
o/wo direct object particle (modified by a verb)
okane money
agemasu/ageru give
moraimasu/morau receive
How was that?
If you have any feedback or questions please leave me a comment.
Consider signing up to my free lesson alerts below.
Cheers,
David
Leaving things as they are in Japanese
Hi there!
In today’s free learn Japanese language lesson we are going to talk about leaving things as they are.
Let’s examine this in English first (or, as they say in Japan, “let’s English”):
Your sitting at home on a hot summer’s day. Relaxing with a beer, watching the T.V. with the air conditioning on.
Your flatmate comes home and immediately says, “Gee, it’s cold, can I turn off the aircon?”
You say, “Please leave it on, it’s really hot today.”
This is a common type of conversation, so now let’s Japanese
anata: aaaaa… suzushi.
anata no tomodachi: tadaima.
anata: okaeri.
anata no tomodachi: sugoi samui desu yo.
anata: so desu ka?
anata no tomodachi: eakon o keshi te mo ii desu ka?
anata: iie, atsui desu kara, sono mama tsukete oite kudasai.
Let’s read it in English
you: aahhh. Nice and cool.
your friend: I’m home.
you: Welcome back.
your friend: Wow! It’s really cold.
you: Really?
your friend: Can I turn the air conditioning off?
you: Please don’t, it’s really hot, please leave it as it is.
Let’s work through this one:
suzushi cool (usually referring to a cool breeze)
tadaima extremely common expression people use when returning home, meaning simple “I’m home”
okaeri common expression said in response to tadaima. This simply means, “Welcome back”
sugoi can mean terrible or fantastic (meaning is understood through context). In this case it is used as an adverb meaning “terribly” or “awfully”
samui cold (temperature)
desu is
yo particle added to the end of sentences to add emphasis
so uh huh? really?
ka question particle
eakon air-conditioning (lit. aircon)
o direct object marker. Used to mark the relationship between a direct object and a verb. For example write a letter, tegami o kaku. This particle is sometimes written as “wo”.
keshite -te form of verb keshimasu (switch off)
mo ii is it okay
iie no
atsui hot
kara This word is equivalent to the English “because”. However the sentence using it is structured differently. In English we say action because reason (eg. John sat on the floor because their were no seats available), in Japanese it is opposite: reason because action (eg. Their were no seats available because John sat on the floor). When you directly translate this it doesn’t really make sense, therefore it is easiest to remember kara as an equivalent to the English word “so”: There were no seats available so John sat on the floor. We will cover this more in future lessons.
sonomama without change, as it is
tsukete -te form of tsukemasu (turn on) (EDITED: Thanks Jim!)
oite verb for “to leave as it is”. The verb is always used following another te form verb when you want something to remain as it is. For example: akete is the te form of open. To leave the window open you can say mado o akete oite kudasai.
Okay, that was an interesting one today!
When reviewing this lesson concentrate on the kara and -te oite kudasai sentence patterns.
Okay, that’ll does it today.
David
Verb Conjugation Japanese Style
Get set for Japanese verb conjugation!
We have some verbs such as kau for buy. I imagine you may be thinking “…but I was told by someone that kaimasu was buy, not kau…” And if that’s what you’re thinking, you’re partially correct.
There many forms of each of those Japanese verbs. This lesson we are going to learn how to convert to those forms.
Japanese verb conjugation is not really too difficult, there are just some rules to remember based on the verb you are conjugating.
Let’s first look at the types of verbs we can use.
dictionary form: These are common when talking to close friends.
masu form: This is the polite way of saying a verb and you would probably use this form when talking to a superior (such as your boss).
te form: This is the form used when requesting something or requesting someone to do something.
We also have to consider tense. However, don’t panic! Tense is easier in Japanese. Tense follows rules and there are only two tenses in Japanese (unlike English). In English we have past, present and future (I ran, I run, I will run). In Japanese there are only past and present (which also acts as future, I ran, I run, I run).
Japanese Verb Conjugation Lesson
So let’s have a look at converting the dictionary form of a verb into past tense (this will set the scene for the rest).
There are rules (which apply in 99% of cases) for past tense conjugation based on the ending of the dictionary form of the verb. I will list them and give an example for each.
Rules: Converting dictionary form to past tense
Earlier rules take precedence over later ones
Rule 1: If the verb ends with iru or eru the remove the ru and add ta. For example, mieru (to be able to see), becomes mieta (was able to be seen). Called GROUP 2 Verbs.
Rule 2: If the verb ends with gu remove gu and add ida. For example, oyogu (to swim), becomes oyoida (swam). Called GROUP 1 Verbs.
Rule 3: If the verb ends with u, ru or tsu remove u, ru or tsu and add tta. For example, kau (to buy), becomes katta (bought). Called GROUP 1 Verbs.
Rule 4: If the verb ends with ku remove ku and replace it with ita. For example kaku (to write), becomes kaita (wrote). Called GROUP 1 Verbs.
Rule 5: If the verb ends with su remove su and replace it with shita. For example, kaesu (to return something) becomes kaeshita (something was returned). Called GROUP 1 Verbs.
Rule 6: If the verbs ends with nu, bu or mu remove nu, bu or mu and add nda. For example, nomu (to drink), becomes nonda (drank). Called GROUP 1 Verbs.
How was that? So now you can convert a dictionary form verb (like the ones from lesson 4) into past tense.
But it doesn’t stop there, oh no….
Japanese verb conjugation allows you to convert the past tense of a dictionary form verb into a request form verb.
For example, let’s say we have a verb like yomu (to read).
If we want to ask someone to read something, we first convert the verb to past tense.
yomu ends with mu so we remove it and add nda (see rule 6).
So now we have the past tense of read which is yonda.
Now simply by conjugating this Japanese verb by dropping the “a” at the end and adding “e” we get the request form, ie. yonde.
So if we want someone to read something, we can say yonde kudasai.
Relatively painless, huh?
Okay, so I told about masu form as well (the polite form).
So to convert to masu form is a little simpler.
If the verb falls into Rule 1 (from the past tense rules above) we simply take the ru away from the dictionary form of the verb and add masu. For example, mieru (to be able to see) becomes miemasu.
If the verbs falls into any other rule we take off the final u from the dictionary form of the verb and add imasu. For example, yomu (to read) becomes yomimasu.
Simple. But how do you make past tense polite?
Just replace masu or imasu with mashita or imashita. For example, yomu becomes yomimashita.
Finally, I have two major exceptions for you (major because they’re used a lot, not because they’re difficult).
These Japanese verb exceptions have no rules and just need to be memorized. Called GROUP 3 Verbs.
kuru (to come) past tense: kita, request: kite, polite: kimasu
suru (to do) past tense: shita, request: shite, polite: shimasu
Okay, I hope that wasn’t to painful. Japanese verb conjugation can make people cringe, but it gets easy very quickly.
You need to know this stuff because each form is used in normal everyday conversations.
My advice is print out the list of dictionary-form verbs and practice your Japanese verb conjugation with them.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible.
Sayounara,
David
