Lesson 9: Giving Commands

In this lesson, you will learn the two most common ways of giving commands in Japanese and two of the less common ones.

The first command form is an informal command that has about the same formality level as the plain form of verbs. To conjugate a verb into this form, you just use the て-form of the verb. The other common command form is about as formal as the ます-form of verbs. To conjugate a verb into this form, you first take the て-form of the verb then add 下さい (ください Normally written in only kana) to the end of the verb i.e. いく→いって→いってください, ころす→ころして→ころしてください, and つかう→つかって→つかってください.

This next command form is mainly used to give commands to people of a lower social status than the person giving the command. To conjugate a verb into this form, you first take the ます-stem of the verb then add なさい to the end of the verb i.e. いき→いきなさい, ころし→ころしなさい, and つかい→つかいなさい.

This command form is a very informal form that is often used to give very blunt commands. This form is a bit more complicated than the previous three command forms since it conjugates differently depending on which Verb Group the verb is. For Group 1 verbs, you change the final kana from ending in an う sound to ending in a え sound i.e. つかう→つかえ, ころす→ころせ, and いく→いけ. For Group 2 verbs, you replace the ending る with ろ i.e. たすける→たすけろ, and たべる→たべろ. For する, you replace it with either しろ or less commonly せよ i.e. する→しろ, or する→せよ, for 来る（くる）, you replace it with 来い(こい) i.e. 来る（くる）→来い（こい）.

That's the end of this lesson. You now know all of the common and a few of the less common ways of giving commands in Japanese. After I cover the negative form of verbs, I teach you how to do negative commands in Japanese.

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

Lesson 6: The Past Tenses

In this lesson, I will teach you how to conjugate verbs into both the polite and the plain past tense. I will first teach the polite past tense because conjugating verbs into it is easier than conjugating verbs into the plain past tense.

Conjugating verbs into the polite past tense is the same for all the groups of verbs. You first conjugate the verb into its ます-stem then add ました to the end of the verb, i.e. あい→あいました, たべ→たべました, and きき→ききました.

Conjugating Group 1 verbs into the plain past tense is a bit harder than conjugating them into the polite past tense since there's more to memorize. The basic steps are the same but there are minor differences depending on which kana ends the verb. If the verb ends in う, つ, or る, you replace ending kana with った, i.e. あう→あった, たつ→たった, and うる→うった. If the ending kana is く, you replace the kana with いた, i.e. きく→きいた. If the ending kana is ぐ, you replace it with いだ, i.e. およぐ→およいだ. If the ending kana is す, you replace it with した, i.e. ころす→ころした. If the verb ends in ぬ, ぶ, or む, you replace the ending kana with んだ, i.e. しぬ→しんだ, よぶ→よんだ , and ぬすむ→ぬすんだ. While that covers all of the normal Group 1 verbs, it does not cover the Group 1 verb 行く (いく） since it's slightly irregular. To conjugate 行く, you replace the く with った, i.e. 行く（いく）→行った（いった）.

Conjugating Group 2 verbs and the irregular verbs into the plain past tense is far easier than conjugating Group 1 verbs into the plain past tense. You just take the ます-stem of the verb and add た to the end of it, i.e. たべ→たべた, たり→たりた , い→いた , しー＞した , and 来（き）→来た（きた）, to conjugate a Group 2 verb or an irregular verb into the plain past tense.

With this lesson and lesson three, you now know all of the basic conjugations of Japanese except for the polite and plain tenses of both the negative present tense and the negative past tense, so you are halfway done learning the basic conjugations of Japanese.

John

Exercises for Lesson 2

This post contains some exercises to help you practice conjugating verbs into the the polite present tense.

The first group of exercises will let you practice conjugating Group 1 verbs, Group 2 verbs, and the irregular verbs into the polite present tense. The second group of exercises will have you conjugating verbs back from the polite present tense into the dictionary form. For all of the verbs in the exercises, I will list the verbs in this order: # of the question, Kanji, Kana, English, Verb Group. The answers for all of the exercises will be at the bottom of the post.

In this first set of verbs, you will conjugate the verbs into their ます-stem then into to their polite present tense. If a verb does not have a ます-stem, just conjugate it into it's polite present tense.

1. 買う　かう　To buy Group 1
2. --　する To do Irregular
3. 消す　けす To delete Group 1
4. 始める　はじめる To begin Group 2
5. 続く 　つづく To continue Group 1
6. 捨てる　すてる To discard Group 2
7. 呼ぶ　よぶ To call Group 1
8. 来る　くる To come Irregular
9. 立つ　たつ To stand Group 1
10. 泳ぐ　およぐ To swim Group 1
11. --　やめる To stop Group 2
12. 売る　うる To sell Group 1
13. 死ぬ　しぬ To die Group 1
14. --　だ To be Irregular
15. 盗む　ぬすむ To steal Group 1

In this next set of verbs, I will list the verbs in the same way as above, but instead of listing the verbs in their dictionary forms I will list them in their polite present tense because you will be conjugating the verbs back into their dictionary forms.

1. 使います　つかいます To use Group 1
2. 写します　うつします To copy Group 1
3. 行きます　いきます To go Group 1
4. します　します To do Irregular
5. 開けます　あけます To open Group 2
6. 来ます　きます To come Irregular
7. 寝ます　ねます To come Group 2
8. 光ります　ひかります To shine Group 1
9. 待ちます　まちます To wait Group 1
10. 選びます　えらびます To choose Group 1
11. --　です To be Irregular

This is the end of the exercises. The answers to all of these exercise problems are below.

John

Answers for the first set of verbs (highlight to see):
1. 買い（かい）→買います（かいます）
2. し→します
3. 消し（けし）→消します（けします）
4. 始め（はじめ）→始めます（はじめます）
5. 続き（つづき）→続きます（つづきます）
6. 捨て（すて）→捨てます（すてます）
7. 呼び（よび）→呼びます（よびます）
8. 来（き）→来ます（きます）
9. 立ち（たち）→立ちます（たちます）
10. 泳ぎ（およぎ）→泳ぎます（およぎます）
11. やめ→やめます
12. 売り（うり）→売ります（うります）
13. 死に（しに）→死にます（しにます）
14. です
15. 盗み（ぬすみ）→盗みます（ぬすみます）

Answer to the second set of verbs (highlight to see):
1. 使う（つかう）
2. 写す（うつす）
3. 行く（いく）
4. する
5. 開ける（あける）
6. 来る（くる）
7. 寝る（ねる）
8. 光る（ひかる）
9. 待つ（まつ）
10. 選ぶ（えらぶ）
11. だ

Lesson 2: The Present Tenses

In this lesson I'm going to go over both the polite and plain forms of the present tense of verbs.

Before I start explaining how to conjugate verbs, I will point out some basics of verbs. There are three groups of verbs in Japanese: verbs that end in the vowel sound う i.e. あう, きく, and ころす; verbs that end with the sound of いる or える i.e. たべる, たりる, and いる; and three irregular verbs. From here on, I'm going to call the verbs ending with the vowel sound う "Group 1" and call the verbs ending with the sound of いる or える "Group 2". One note with verbs that end in いる or える, they can be a part of either Group 1 or Group 2.

Because Japanese does not have a future tense, the present tense serves as both a present tense and a future tense. When reading a verb in Japanese, you have to guess which it is off of the context.

I'm now going to explain the difference between the politeness levels of verbs then we'll move on to the conjugations. In Japanese, there are 3 levels of politeness of verbs: the honorific and humble forms, the polite form, and the plain form. I'm going to skip the honorific and humble forms because they aren't very useful at this level and just explain the polite and plain forms. The polite form is used around strangers. The plain form is normally used with friends and family or speaking to someone who is of a lower social rank.

The plain present tense is the same as the dictionary form which is the form you find in the dictionary and the form I list here.

The polite present tense is sometime called the ます form because when you finish conjugating the verb it ends in ます. The first step to conjugating a verb into the polite present tense is to conjugate it into it's ます-Stem then add ます to the end of the verb. I'm going to first explain how to conjugate Groups 1 and 2 verbs then show how to conjugate the irregular verbs.

For Verb Group 1, you take the final kana and change the う into an い i.e. あう→あい, きく→きき, and ころす→ころし. This form is the ます-Stem for Verb Group 1 verbs. After conjugating the verb into the ます-Stem you just add ます to the end of the stem to get the polite present tense of a Verb Group i.e. あい→あいます, きき→ききます, and ころし→ころします.

Verb Groups 2 verbs are a bit easier to conjugate. To conjugate one in it's ます-Stem, you just have to remove the final る from the verb i.e. たべる→たべ, たりる→たり, and いる→い. Now just take the ます-Stem and add ます to it i.e. たべ→たべます, たり→たります, and い→います.

I'll first list all of the irregular verbs then show you how to conjugate each of them. There is the irregular copula だ (to be) and the irregular verbs する and 来る (くる To come). だ, because it's not a normal verb, does not have a ます-Stem and conjugates straight into です for it's polite present tense. For する and 来る, Their ます-Stems are し and 来 (き) respectively. To get their polite present tense add ます to the end verb i.e.　し→します and 来→来ます (きます).

Before I bring this lesson to a conclusion, I have one thing to say: do not forget how to conjugate into the ます-Stem because it will be useful later. With that said, this lesson is over, but if you need some practice conjugating verbs you can find some exercises here.

John