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Lesson 5: Verb Groups and The 〜て Form

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In this lesson we're going to talk about Japanese verbs. Japanese verbs fall into three groups, and these don't matter except when we're going to make some change in the form of the verb. But because we do that pretty often, it's important to understand the three groups.

The first group of Japanese verbs are called 一段 [いちだん] verbs or "one-level" verbs. Some people call them "ru-verbs", which is a very silly name. If you're going to call them anything like that, we should probably call them "iru/eru verbs". They are the simplest and most basic kind of verb.

When we want to make any change, we always do it the same way. All we do is take the る off the end and put on whatever we want to put on.

一段 [いちだん] verbs can only end with either -iru or -eru, that's to say, with one of the かな from the い-row or one of the かな from the え-row plus る.

The second group of verbs is by far the largest and any ending that a verb can have, verbs in this group can have. Verbs always end with the u-sound, but not all う-row かな can make the end of a verb, but a lot of them can and all of them can make 五段 [ごだん] verbs.

They are called 五段, or "five-level" verbs, for reasons that we'll see shortly, and as I say they can end in any u-sound, including -iru or -eru. So, unlike 一段 verbs, they can also end in -oru, -aru or -uru.

The only time we have any ambiguity is when we have a verb ending in -iru or -eru. Most of those verbs are 一段, but there is a substantial minority of iru/eru-ending 五段 verbs. It's not as difficult to differentiate them as you might think, and I've made a lesson on that, although it's a little bit more advanced than this lesson.

The third group of verbs is irregular verbs, and the good news here is that there are only two of them. You know those pages and pages of irregular verbs in your Spanish or French textbook? Well, Japanese has just two.

There are a couple of other verbs that are irregular in just one small respect, but very few.

The irregular verbs are 来る [くる] "come" and する "do".

So now that we know the three groups, we're going to take a look at how you make them into the て and た-form. As I explained in the previous lesson, we need those two forms for making the Japanese present and past tenses. And they have a number of other uses too, which we'll learn as we go along with this course.

And I demonstrated in the previous lesson, that 一段 verbs are always very easy. You never do anything except take off the る and put on whatever you're going to put on, in this case a て or a た.

五段 verbs have five kinds of possible ending - that's why they're called 五段 verbs: five-level verbs. And although that seems a little bit difficult, it really isn't. We can combine two of the levels anyway, because they are so close that we only need to learn them once. And I'm going to go through the main groups.

The first group is what I call the うつる verbs. Those are the verbs ending in う, つ, and る. The word うつる in Japanese - if you don't know it, now is a good time to learn it - うつる means to move from one thing to another, and that's exactly what we're doing here - moving our verbs from one type to another.

So the verbs which end in う, つ, and る all transform in the same way to the て-form. We take off the う, the つ, or the る, and we replace it with a small っ plus て (or た in the た-form). So:

笑う [わらう] "laugh", becomes 笑って
持つ [もつ] "hold", becomes 持って
取る [とる] "take", becomes 取って

Now, you'll notice that うつる has つ in the middle. And the て-form of the うつる verbs is formed by using a small っ plus that て. It's the only group that has つ in it, and it's the only group that has a っ in the て-form ending. So it's really easy to remember.

The second group is what I call the NEW BOOM group. In Japanese when something is really taking off, when it's becoming popular, we call it a ブーム. That's an English word, isn't it? ブーム, a New ブーム!

So, this group I call the New Boom group because there isn't a Japanese word that you can make out of ぬ, ぶ, and む that I know of, and what I want you to notice about this group of verbs is that they all end in what I would call a dull sound - ぬ, ぶ, む.

It's not a sharp sound like す, つ, く, and it's not a neutral sound like る or う. It's a dull sound - ぬ, ぶ, む. And this is important because the ending is also a dull sound.

The て-form ending is んで, the た-form is んだ. So:

死ぬ [しぬ] "die", the only ぬ ending verb, becomes 死んで / 死んだ
飲む [のむ] "drink", becomes 飲んで / 飲んだ
遊ぶ [あそぶ] "play", becomes 遊んで / 遊んだ

So, that's the New Boom group, the dull-ending verbs. And because only a limited number of the possible かな can be used as a verb ending, they include all the dull sounds except for ぐ. We'll come to that right now.

I told you that two of the groups could be combined, and that is the く and ぐ group.

To make the て form of a く ending verb, we cut off the く and add いて, or いた in the た form. So:

歩く [あるく] "walk", becomes 歩いて / 歩いた

Now, if we have a てんてん on that く, to make it into a ぐ, it's exactly the same, except that there is also a てんてん on the て-ending. So:

歩く becomes 歩いて or 歩いた, but
泳ぐ [およぐ] "swim", becomes 泳いで or 泳いだ

As you see, the two are more or less identical in how they change. It's just that if there's a てんてん on the original verb, there's a てんてん on the て-form too.

And now we just have one left, and that is す. And verbs ending in す drop the す and add して.

As you will notice, if you have followed our last lesson, we are just doing that regular thing of shifting the す to its い-row equivalent, し. So:

話す [はなす] "talk", becomes 話して

The ます helper verb, which turns verbs into formal verbs, in the past tense becomes ました.

So, now we have all the 五段 verbs.

Now, we are just going to look at the exceptions. There are only three altogether: our two irregular verbs and one other small one. And these are very simple.

来る [くる] "come" becomes 来て [きて]
する "do" becomes して

And the verb 行く [いく] "to go" - because it ends in く, you would expect it to become いいて, but it doesn't, it becomes 行って [いって]

And those are the only exceptions. So if you go over the lesson a couple of times, I think you'll find it pretty easy to know exactly how to make the て and た-forms in all cases.

五段 Verb Ending て-form た-form
う, つ, る
って
った
ぬ, ぶ, む
んで
んだ
く
いて
いた
ぐ
いで
いだ
す
して
した