A couple of my friends have asked me about verbs recently: about verb groups, or dictionary forms, or negative conjugations. I have made some Gflash card sets to kick off about verb groups and dictionary forms. You can find them by searching for Ishi No Ue in the Gflash catalogue, or if you have a gmail account, send your email address via the contact form and I can share the spreadsheet with you.

But I thought a note on how groups and dictionary forms work might help. One thing about groups is that they are easier to follow if you know the dictionary form, but must students start out with the ます-form, so we will talk about that too.

Verb groups are often described by referring to the dictionary form, but it is easier to follow from the ます-form (the exceptions make sense) in some cases. Ideally, you should learn verb groups and dictionary forms at the same time. Expect to be confused: It is the kind of thing that makes perfect sense once you know it perfectly.

う！い！う！あ！あ！Ting! Tang! Wallah-wallah! Bing! Bang!

First, a definition. I will talk about the う-line or the い-line, for example. That means when you look at the kana chart, reading down the vertical lines in the chart by sound. This is the secret to verb conjugation in Japanese.　Switching between the い or the う sound in the line is very handy.

あ　い う え　お

か　き く け　こ

さ　し す せ　そ

There are three groups. Group 1 (五段動詞・ごだんどうし), Group 2 (一段動詞・いちだんどうし) and the Irregular verbs (来る・くる；する・する）. The best way to deal with these is with the irregular verbs first, then Group 2 and lastly Group 1:

Irregular Verbs

きます・来ます・くる・来る (“to come”) and します・します・する・する (“to do”) are the only irregular verbs in Japanese. They do crazy things when you conjugate them. You just have to remember them. They should not cause you too much woe. Just put in the work to remember their irregular forms.

Group 2

Group 2 verbs are identified by a sound rule. These verbs end in ～える or sometimes ～いる in the dictionary form, and in the ます-form they have an え or sometimes an い sound before the ます. For some it is easier to think about this in romaji. tabemasu; nemasu; mimasu; and nimasu. It is that e sound that tells us “Group 2!”. Because i verbs can be Group 1 or Group 2, maybe it is better to focus on the e-line verbs that are always Group 2.

So, you are looking for the え-line (e.g. ね；せ；け；げ etc.) or sometimes the い-line. For example:

たべます・食べます・食べる・たべる；

きます・着ます・着る・きる；

みます・見ます・見る・みる；

and ねます・寝ます・寝る・ねる.

They are easy to conjugate and just require you to cut off the ます part and add what you need.

To get the dictionary form here, you just have to cut ます and add る.

たべます・食べます・食べ+る・たべ+る

みます・見ます・見+る・み+る

To get the negative form, just add ない

たべます・食べます・食べ+ない・たべ+ない

みます・見ます・見+ない・み+ない

Group 1

These guys end with the う-line: く；す；ぶ；る etc. in the dictionary form. That means that in the ます-form they will have an い-line sound. Some examples are:

ききます・聞きます・きく・聞く；

あきます・開きます・あく・開く；

はなします・話します・はなす・話す.

To make the dictionary forms we move from the い-line to the う-line. So, いきます becomes いく and あるきます becomes あるく.

Ultimately, knowing the ます-form and the dictionary form will help you know which group a verb is in, and similarly, knowing the group of the verb will help you know the dictionary form. Best thing to do is drill yourself on it.

WAIT! What about い sound verbs?

So, the い-line verbs can be Group 2 or Group 1. This will drive you nuts for a while. For example, if you think about おきます, which means “to wake up”, and おきます, which means “to put”, you will be confused to hear that one is Group 1 and one is Group 2. Which is which? The answer is in the dictionary form: おきます・おきる is Group 2, and means “wake up”, but おきます・おく is Group 1 and means “put”. That means that they conjugate differently.

If anything is unclear, write me a comment.

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