Japanese Verb Conjugation: The Complete Beginner's Guide

Verbs are the engine of every Japanese sentence. Nouns tell you who and what, particles tell you how they relate, but the verb is what actually happens — and in Japanese, the verb is also where most of the grammar lives. Tense, politeness, negation, conditionals, wanting, letting, being possible — almost all of it is done by changing the shape of the verb. That's conjugation, and at first glance it looks terrifying: tables of endings, mysterious "groups," a form called "te-form" that everyone says is the key to everything.

Here's the truth: Japanese verb conjugation is not chaotic. It's one of the most systematic parts of the language, and once you internalize a small number of patterns, every new verb you meet becomes predictable. There are essentially two regular verb groups, two irregular ones, and a handful of endings you attach to a couple of stem forms. That's the whole game. This guide walks through the groups, the stems, and every form a beginner actually needs — polite, past, te-form, negative, and a glimpse of the advanced ones.

If you're starting from zero on Japanese grammar, it helps to have hiragana solid first, since every conjugated ending is written in kana. From there, the grammar lessons walk you through each form with practice, and this guide is the map.

The three verb groups

Every Japanese verb belongs to one of three groups. The group determines how the verb conjugates, so the very first thing you do with a new verb is figure out which group it's in. Two of the groups are regular and follow clean rules; the third has exactly two members.

Group 1 — godan / u-verbs

Also called 五段動詞 (godan-dōshi, "five-step verbs"). These are the largest group — probably two-thirds of all verbs. The tell: the dictionary form ends in a u-row kana (う, く, ぐ, す, つ, ぬ, ぶ, む, る), and when you conjugate, the final consonant shifts through the five vowels of that consonant's row (a, i, u, e, o — hence "five steps").

Examples:

• 書く (kaku) — to write
• 話す (hanasu) — to speak
• 待つ (matsu) — to wait
• 飲む (nomu) — to drink
• 買う (kau) — to buy
• 走る (hashiru) — to run

Notice that some godan verbs also end in 〜る. This is the trap — see below.

Group 2 — ichidan / ru-verbs

Also called 一段動詞 (ichidan-dōshi, "one-step verbs"). These are simpler: the dictionary form always ends in 〜る, and the part right before the る is an i-vowel or e-vowel kana (い or え row). To conjugate, you just drop the る — that's the "one step." Nothing else changes in the stem.

Examples:

• 食べる (taberu) — to eat (e-row before る)
• 見る (miru) — to see (i-row before る)
• 寝る (neru) — to sleep
• 起きる (okiru) — to wake up
• 教える (oshieru) — to teach
• かける (kakeru) — to hang / to make (a call)

Group 3 — the two irregulars

There are exactly two:

• する (suru) — to do. Ubiquitous: it attaches to tons of nouns to make verbs (勉強する, 料理する, 運動する).
• 来る (kuru) — to come. Note it's written 来る in kanji but read kuru.

That's the entire group. You'll see them constantly, so they're worth memorizing on day one.

How to tell Group 1 from Group 2 (the る trap)

The hardest part for beginners is that both Group 1 and Group 2 can end in 〜る. The vowel-before-る rule gets you most of the way: if a verb ends in 〜iru or 〜eru, it's probably Group 2. If it ends in 〜aru, 〜uru, or 〜oru, it's definitely Group 1.

But there are exceptions — Group 1 verbs that sneak in looking like Group 2. The most famous:

• 走る (hashiru, to run) — Group 1, even though it ends in 〜iru
• 帰る (kaeru, to return) — Group 1, even though it ends in 〜eru
• 入る (hairu, to enter) — Group 1
• 知る (shiru, to know) — Group 1
• 切る (kiru, to cut) — Group 1
• 滑る (suberu, to slip) — Group 1

There's no rule that perfectly sorts these — you just have to remember them. The good news: there are only a few dozen common ones, and once you've seen 走る conjugate as hashiranai instead of *hashinai, you never forget it.

The two stem forms

Here's the unifying idea that makes Japanese conjugation click: almost every conjugation is built on one of two stems of the verb.

1. The dictionary form (辞書形) — the plain form you look up in a dictionary. 書く, 食べる, する. This is the basis for casual affirmative forms, conditionals, and several others.
2. The masu-stem (連用形, ren'yōkei) — the "continuing form." This is what's left when you strip the verb down to attach ます. For Group 2, it's the verb minus る (食べ→食べます). For Group 1, it's the verb with its final kana shifted to the i-row (書く→書き→書きます). For the irregulars, する→し and 来る→来（き）.

Once you have these two stems, you can derive almost anything. Polite form? masu-stem + ます. Negative? masu-stem + ません, or dictionary form minus the final u + あ-row + ない for the plain negative. Past and te-form? Built off the same stem, with a small sound change. The stems are the load-bearing concept — learn them once and everything else is just endings.

Polite form (〜ます)

The ます-form is the polite form, the one you use with strangers, coworkers, and anyone above you in the hierarchy. Every beginner learns this first.

To build it, take the masu-stem and add ます:

• Group 1: 書く → 書き → 書きます (kakimasu, write)
• Group 1: 会う → 会い → 会います (aimasu, meet)
• Group 2: 食べる → 食べ → 食べます (tabemasu, eat)
• Group 2: 見る → 見 → 見ます (mimasu, see)
• Group 3: する → し → します (shimasu, do)
• Group 3: 来る → 来（き）→ 来（き）ます (kimasu, come)

The negative polite is just the masu-stem + ません:

• 書きません (do not write)
• 食べません (do not eat)
• しません (do not do)

That's the entire polite system for present/future tense. There's no separate "future" form in Japanese — 書きます covers both "I write" and "I will write," and context decides.

Past tense (〜た)

The casual past tense ends in 〜た. To build it, you first form the te-form (next section) and then the final sound of the te-form flips to た. So once you know the te-form rules, the past tense is essentially free.

• Group 1: 書く → 書いて (te) → 書いた (kaita, wrote)
• Group 1: 会う → 会って (te) → 会った (atta, met)
• Group 2: 食べる → 食べて (te) → 食べた (tabeta, ate)
• Group 3: する → して (te) → した (shita, did)
• Group 3: 来る → 来（き）て (te) → 来（き）た (kita, came)

The polite past uses the masu-stem + ました:

• 書きました (wrote, polite)
• 食べました (ate, polite)

And the polite past negative is masu-stem + ませんでした:

• 書きませんでした (did not write, polite)

te-form (〜て)

The te-form is the single most-used conjugation in Japanese. It does at least four jobs:

• Linking clauses: 食べて、寝た。 "I ate, then I slept." The て connects sequential actions.
• Requests: 食べて。 "Eat it." With ください it becomes 食べてください — "Please eat."
• Ongoing action: with いる, 食べている means "am eating" (often shortened to 食べてる).
• Permission and prohibition: 食べてもいいです (you may eat), 食べてはいけません (you must not eat).

Because it's everywhere, the te-form is worth drilling until it's automatic. The rules depend on the verb's group, and the godan rules in particular have a sound-change pattern you'll internalize quickly.

Group 2 (ru-verbs): drop る, add て. Simple.

• 食べる → 食べて
• 見る → 見て
• かける → かけて

Group 3 (irregulars): two forms to memorize.

• する → して
• 来る → 来（き）て

Group 1 (godan): the ending determines the te-form. Here's the full table:

| Dictionary ending | te-form | Example | |---|---|---| | 〜う, 〜つ, 〜る | 〜って | 買う→買って, 待つ→待って, 帰る→帰って | | 〜ぬ, 〜ぶ, 〜む | 〜んで | 死ぬ→死んで, 遊ぶ→遊んで, 読む→読んで | | 〜く | 〜いて | 書く→書いて, 聞く→聞いて | | 〜ぐ | 〜いで | 泳ぐ→泳いで, 脱ぐ→脱いで | | 〜す | 〜して | 話す→話して, 返す→返して |

The pattern is that the て/で distinction follows voicing: く (unvoiced) → いて, ぐ (voiced) → いで; う/つ/る (unvoiced) → って, ぬ/ぶ/む (voiced) → んで. Once you feel that, you stop having to memorize the table.

One truly irregular exception: 行く (iku, to go). It should be 行いて by the く rule, but it's 行って (itte) instead. Just memorize it.

Negatives (〜ない)

The plain negative ends in 〜ない ("not"). Build it by taking the dictionary form, dropping the final u-vowel, and adding the a-row equivalent plus ない. In practice this means: for Group 1, shift the final kana to the あ-row; for Group 2, drop る; for する and 来る, use し and 来（こ）.

• Group 1: 書く → 書か → 書かない (do not write)
• Group 1: 飲む → 飲ま → 飲まない (do not drink)
• Group 1: 話す → 話さ → 話さない (do not speak)
• Group 2: 食べる → 食べ → 食べない (do not eat)
• Group 3: する → し → しない (do not do)
• Group 3: 来る → 来（こ）→ 来（こ）ない (do not come)

Note that ある (to be, for inanimate objects) has no 〜ない form of its own — its negative is just ない. A small but useful irregularity.

The past negative is 〜なかった:

• 書かなかった (did not write)
• 食べなかった (did not eat)
• しなかった (did not do)

Volitional, conditional, potential

These are the forms you'll meet once you're past N5. They're built on the same stems, so they're not new — just new endings.

• Volitional (〜よう / 〜ましょう) — "let's." Group 2 drops る and adds よう: 食べよう. Group 1 shifts to the o-row and adds う: 書こう. する→しよう, 来る→来（こ）よう.
• Conditional (〜たら / 〜ば) — "if." 〜たら is built from the past form: 書いたら, 食べたら. 〜ば uses a different stem: 書けば, 食べれば.
• Potential (〜れる / 〜られる) — "can." Group 1 shifts to the e-row and adds る: 書ける (can write). Group 2 drops る and adds られる: 食べられる (can eat). する→できる, 来る→来（こ）られる.

Don't try to swallow all of these at once. Get masu, past, te-form, and negative automatic first; the rest comes later, in the N4 and N3 grammar lessons.

Conjugation table: one verb per group

Here's everything we covered, side by side, for a representative verb from each group:

| Form | Group 1: 書く (write) | Group 2: 食べる (eat) | Group 3: する (do) | |---|---|---|---| | Dictionary | 書く | 食べる | する | | Polite affirmative | 書きます | 食べます | します | | Polite negative | 書きません | 食べません | しません | | te-form | 書いて | 食べて | して | | Past casual | 書いた | 食べた | した | | Past polite | 書きました | 食べました | しました | | Negative casual | 書かない | 食べない | しない | | Past negative | 書かなかった | 食べなかった | しなかった | | Volitional | 書こう | 食べよう | しよう |

Read it down each column, not across — notice how the Group 2 column barely changes (just る on and off), while Group 1 shifts its final kana. That contrast is the whole grammar of verb groups in miniature.

How to actually practice conjugation

Reading the rules once will not make them stick. Conjugation is a motor skill as much as a fact — you need to produce the forms fast, over and over, until your fingers and mouth skip the rule and go straight to the answer. That's what makes typing and flashcard drills so effective: they force you to conjugate under time pressure, which is exactly how real conversation works.

A few practice principles:

• Don't memorize tables. Drill verbs, not charts. Pick five verbs from each group and conjugate them through every form until the pattern is automatic, then rotate in new verbs.
• Learn forms as you need them. masu, te-form, past, negative cover 90% of real usage. Master those before touching volitional or conditional.
• Always conjugate in a sentence. 書いた alone teaches you the form; 昨日手紙を書いた (I wrote a letter yesterday) teaches you the form and locks it to a real meaning.
• Practice both directions. Go from dictionary form to polite, and from polite back to dictionary. Production in both directions is what makes the system bidirectional in your head.

The grammar lessons on yomion build conjugation in this order — group rules, then stems, then one form at a time, each with drilling baked in. And if you want a deeper look at how particles fit around these verbs, the particles guide picks up where this one leaves off.

The payoff

Japanese verb conjugation looks like an ocean of endings from the outside. It isn't. It's two stems, three groups, and a short list of endings, and every new verb you learn slots into the same machinery. The first week feels like rote memorization. By week three, you conjugate new verbs on the fly without thinking about the rule. By month three, you stop thinking about conjugation at all and start thinking about what you want to say.

That's the goal — and it's closer than it looks. Learn the groups, drill the forms, and trust the system. Every verb you meet from here on is just another instance of the same few patterns.