Lesson 8: The て-Form

In this lesson, you will learn how to conjugate verbs into the て-form.

The て-form is used for three purposes: a form to conjugate off of, like the ます-stem; an informal way to give a command; and a way to connect two sentences. I will cover its use as a way to give a command in the next lesson and cover how it connects sentences in a later lesson.

To conjugate a verb into the て-form, you first take the plain past tense of the verb then replace either the ending た with て or the ending だ with で, i.e. たべた→たべて, しんだ→しんで, and した→して. This conjugation covers both Group 1 and Group 2 verbs and する and 来る. The て-form of だ (to be) is で.

That is all for this lesson. Even though none of its uses has been covered yet, the て-form is a very useful form to know.

John