	Learn Japanese For Free

Tenses In Japanese

Japanese verbs have just two tenses: present and past. The dictionary form is present tense. Present tense refers to both present and future, which makes the verb taberu not just "I eat," but also "I will eat." The context usually tells you which meaning the verb is expressing. As in English, the present tense often doesn't refer to this very moment but to some habitual action, such as "I eat dinner every day at 6:00."

If you know a verb's te-form, expressing that verb in the past tense is easy. You simply change the final vowel from an e to an a. For example, tabete (tah-beh-teh; eat) becomes tabeta (tah-beh-tah; ate), and nonde (nohn-deh; drink) becomes nonda (nohn-dah; drank).

To say that you didn't do something in the past, you need to fashion verbs into their negative past forms. Simply take the negative form, drop the final vowel, i, and add -katta. For example, tabenai (tah-beh-nah-ee; don't eat) becomes tabenakatta (tah-beh-nah-kaht-tah; didn't eat). Cool, huh?

Speaking politely

In Japanese, the verbs you choose say a lot about you. Although using the plain/informal verb form when you talk with close friends or family members is fine, if you use them in a business situation or with strangers, the listener may think you're unsophisticated or even rude. Judging the situation and knowing what level of formality is appropriate is an integral part of speaking Japanese. Making polite/neutral verb forms is easy. You just have to remember four verb endings (one each for the affirmative present, negative present, affirmative past, and negative past) and add one of them to the end of the verb's stem form.

For affirmative present verbs, add -masu.
For negative present verbs, add -masen.
For affirmative past verbs, add -mashita.
For negative past verbs, add -masen deshita.

Below the table gives you some examples.

Making Polite/Neutral Verb Forms

	tabeni [ru](eat)	miru[ru](watch)	nomu[u](drink)
Stem	tabe	mi	nomi
Affirmative Present	tabemasu	mimasu	nomimasu
Negative Present	tabemasen	mimasen	nomimasen
Affirmative Past	tabemashita	mimashita	nomimashita
Negative Past	tabemasen deshita	mimasen deshita	nomimasen deshita

Enhancing Verbs With suffixes

Japanese has a rich inventory of verb suffixes that add either concrete meaning or subtle implications. Different suffixes require different verb forms: plain/ informal form (dictionary form, negative form, past tense, or negative past tense), stem form, or te-form. You may think that I'm slipping a whole new form in on you, but plain/informal form is just the term I use to indicate that the verb form isn't the stem or the te-form. Dictionary form, negative form, past tense, and negative past tense verbs all follow the same pattern, so I call them all the plain/informal form.

Note:In this table, I use hyphens to show you the boundary between the verb and the verb suffix, but you pronounce the verbs as one word or phrase.

Common Verb Suffixes

Meaning/Function	Suffix	Example	Translation
Suffixes that Follow Plain/Informal Forms
should	-beki desu	taberu- beki desu	1 should eat.
probability	-desho	taberu-desho	I'll probably eat.
possibility	-kamo shiremasen	taberu- kamo shiremasen	1 might eat.
person	-hito	taberu-hito	the person who eats
because	-kara	taberu-kara	because 1 eat
noun-maker	-koto	taberu-koto	the act of eating
things	-mono	taberu-mono	things to eat
time	-toki	taberu-toki	when 1 eat
intention	-tsumori desu	taberu-tsumori desu	1 plan to eat.
Suffixes that Follow Stem Forms
while	-nagara	tabe-nagara	while eating
purpose	-ni	tabe-ni	in order to eat
difficulty	-nikui	tabe-nikui	It's hard to eat.
overdoing	-sugiru	tabe-sugiru	1 overeat.
desire	-tai	tabe-tai	1 want to eat.
Suffixes that Follow Te-forms
doing a favor	-ageru	tabete-ageru	1 eat for you.
present perfect	-aru	tabete-aru	1 have eaten.
present progressive	-iru	tabete-iru	1 am eating.
requesting	-kudasai	tabete-kudasai	Please eat.
attempt	-miru	tabete-miru	I'll try to eat.
completion	-shimau	tabete-shimau	I finish eating.

Learn Japanese For Free

Tenses In Japanese