In this article, we will talk about Japanese verbs, today we will study the dictionary form and the masu form. In other articles, we will study various conjugations.
In Japanese, verbs are not affected by the subject. In other words, whether the subject is singular or plural, first person or second person, the verbs do not change their form. As for verb tenses, there are only two divisions of time; non-past (present and future) and past. Present and future tenses are the same, and can be differentiated by context.
First, we have the simple and original form of the verb, the dictionary form. This form can be used in some casual occasions, we will use it as a basis to change the tense and verb form in this article. In the dictionary form, all verbs end with the letter “U”.
By learning the masu form and the dictionary form, we will be ready to learn new conjugations and forms of verbs.
Throughout the articles, we will learn all the verb forms that are:
- the dictionary form (infinitive)
- the non-past form
- the negative form
- the -ta form (preterite)
- the -te form
- the transitive and intransitive forms
- the passive form (-areru, -rareru)
- the causative form (-aseru, -waseru)
- the potential form (-eru, -rareru)
- the conditional form (-eba, -tara)
- the imperative form (-nasai)
- the desiderative form (-tai)
- the volitional form (-ō)
Masu Form ます形
The “ます masu” form is the formal way of speaking a verb. Taking a verb from the dictionary form and converting it to the ます form varies according to its ending, the verbs are divided into groups. (We will see more about this group division in another article).
To facilitate this division and transformation, we should divide the verbs ending in “る – ru” from the other verbs. Once that is done, we can do the following:
- Verbs that do not end with “る” should have the last hiragana that ends with “U” replaced by the hiragana of the same group that ends with “i”. See the table with some examples:
| Verb | Dictionary Form | Masu Form | Endings |
| Speak | 話す (hanasu) | 話します | す = し |
| Write | 書く (kaku) | 書きます | く = ぎ |
| Swim | 泳ぐ (oyogu) | 泳ぎます | ぐ = ぎ |
| Read | 読む (yomu) | 読みます | む = み |
| Play | 遊ぶ (asobu) | 遊びます | ぶ = び |
| Stand | 立つ (tatsu) | 立ちます | つ = ち |
| Die | 死ぬ (shinu) | 死にます | ぬ = に |
| Sing | 歌う (utau) | 歌います | う = い |
- There are verbs with “る” that should be changed to “り” but there are verbs ending in “る” that should have the “る” removed and directly add “ます” such as (Eat – taberu – 食べる = 食べます). For this reason, one should focus on learning the words;
- There are other verbs where the rule of replacing the ending does not work, examples:
| Verb | Dictionary Form | Masu Form |
| Do | する | します |
| Come | 来る (くる) | きます |
Now let’s see how to conjugate verbs in the ます form according to their verb tense:
| Tense | Masu Form | Example (遊ぶ – asobu) |
|---|---|---|
| Present / Future | ます | 遊びます – Play |
| Negative | ません | 遊びません – Do not play |
| Past | ました | 遊びました – Played |
| Past Negative | ませんでした | 遊びませんでした – Did not play |
- 本を読みます (ほんをよみます) – Read a book
- カラオケで 歌いました (カラオケで歌いました) – I sang at karaoke
The same thing happens with the verb in the dictionary form. It is possible to conjugate the verb directly in the dictionary form without converting to the masu form, for that we must learn more verb conjugations. But below I will leave some examples:
| Tense | Example (遊ぶ – asobu) |
|---|---|
| Present / Future | 遊ぶ – Play |
| Negative | 遊ばない – Do not play |
| Past | 遊んだ – Played |
| Past Negative | 遊ばなかった – Did not play |
- 本を読む (ほんをよむ) – Read a book
- カラオケで歌った (カラオケでうたった) – I sang at karaoke
It is worth remembering that there are other verb conjugations that we will study in another article, which use both the masu form and the dictionary form. We just need to keep in mind that the dictionary form is informal and the masu form is formal, and thus simplify our minds to conjugate verbs in other forms.
As an exercise, I would like you to comment with example sentences in the dictionary form and in the masu form. I will already thank you for the comments and shares, and see you next time!
We recommend the article on verbs in the tai form.
Test your knowledge of verbs by taking a quiz click here.
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