Appendix:Japanese verbs

=Modern Japanese=

This section deals only with Japanese as written and spoken in the late 20th and 21st centuries.

Difference between Japanese school grammar and modern linguistic analysis
Japanese school grammar (, gakkō bunpō) is based on an analysis of Classical Japanese texts written in the kana script. As the kana script is written without spaces, it represents morae as the smallest phonological unit, and due to differences between Classical Japanese and Modern Japanese, it is very different from the newer grammar designed to teach Japanese to foreign students ( Nihongo kyōiku bunpō).

Conjugational classes: From a morphological view, regular verbs in Modern Japanese can be roughly classified into two conjugational classes, consonant-stem and vowel-stem. The dictionary form of consonant-stem verbs is stem + -u, and of vowel-stem verbs is stem + -ru.

Japanese school grammar, however, uses a very different approach. Due to the moraic kana script, a consonant-stem verb such as kak-u is segmented as ka-ku since other endings cause a change to the kana for the ku part (e.g. kak-anai, kak-imasu, etc.) In addition, only that kana is regarded as the ending in conjugation; the remaining part is considered as particles or auxiliary verbs.

It is easy to see that for any consonant-stem verb, the "ending" in Japanese school grammar is a kana whose consonant does not change (since it is from the true stem) and whose vowel can change to all five vowels in conjugation. In the fifty-sound table ( gojūon-zu), the ending stays on the same row but can cover all five columns ("grades") in conjugation, so the conjugation of consonant-stem verbs are called five-grade conjugation ( godan katsuyō).

Vowel-stem verbs are more complex. Since Japanese school grammar is designed for Classical Japanese, where most modern vowel-stem verbs such as oki-ru had alternation in the stem-final vowel (e.g. oki-ru used to conjugate to oki-zu, oki-ki, oku(ru), oku-reba, etc.), the unchanging part was ok- and the same reason with consonant-stem verbs caused them to be segmented like o-kiru, even though the ki part never change in Modern Japanese. In conjugation the ru part is dropped or changed mainly to ensure the same set of particles or auxiliary verbs:

It's easy to see that the "ending" begins with a kana that does not change (since it is from the true stem) and therefore stays on one row and one column ("grade") of the fifty-sound table. For i-stem verbs, that kana is on the i row, so the conjugation is called upper-monograde conjugation ( kami-ichidan katsuyō). For e-stem verbs, that kana is on the e row, so the conjugation is called lower-monograde conjugation ( shimo-ichidan katsuyō). (The names are in reference to a vertically written fifty-sound table where the five rows a, i, u, e, o becomes five columns and the "upper/lower monograde" refers to the column above or below the middle one, u).

The newer grammar designed to teach foreigners follows the morphological analysis and groups the verbs into three classes, Group I (consonant-stem), Group II (vowel-stem), and Group III (irregular). The first two classes are also called -u verbs and -ru verbs, but the stem-ending boundary of consonant-stem verbs is not indicated because it may be blurred by sound changes (e.g. kak-u → kaita), making their kana-based segmentation (ka-ku) more advantageous.

Paradigm of verbs: In Japanese school grammar, verbs have only six conjugated forms (although some can have further sound changes) and any further conjugation is done by appending particles ( joshi) or auxiliary verbs ( jodōshi).

The newer grammar designed for teaching foreigners Japanese, on the other hand, gives a set of key conjugated forms that may be immediately useful:

Conjugation classes
In traditional Japanese grammar, modern Japanese has five verbal conjugational classes: godan (five-grade), kami ichidan (upper monograde), shimo ichidan (lower monograde), ka-gyō henkaku (k- irregular), and sa-gyō henkaku (s- irregular). Some English-language resources simplify them to three: Group I (consonant stem, comprising godan), Group II (vowel stem, comprising the ichidan’s), and Group III (irregular). The first two groups are also known as -u and -ru verbs, respectively, in reference to the dictionary form (i.e. the nonpast) endings.

Five-grade (五段 godan)
Five-grade (五段 godan) is the class of consonant stem verbs and is the largest verb class with native vocabulary. The stem-final consonants include -k, -g, -s, -t, -n, -b, -m, -r, and -w. The dictionary form is formed by attaching -u to the stem, making, , , , , , , , and. Traditionally, the stem-final consonant is considered as part of the inflecting suffix, so a verb like is segmented as, with the inflecting part being -ku. Since the stem-final consonant play a role in some of the conjugation patterns, we include it in the paradigm below as well.


 * Notes
 * 1) For volitional forms such as kakou, some versions of the katsuyōkei system list the kako- part as an alternative 未然形 mizenkei, and some list it as a seventh katsuyōkei form. The -ou ending is spelt in historical kana orthography (歴史的仮名遣い) as -au (e.g. yasumou as やすまう), reflecting its historical derivation.
 * 2) Historically, the -w ending for all such verbs was originally a -p, hence the historical kana spelling (歴史的仮名遣い) for, say, いう is いふ, with the six katsuyōkei forms いは, いひ, いふ, いふ, いへ, いへ.

Upper monograde (上一段 kami ichidan)
Upper monograde (上一段 kami ichidan) is the class of regular vowel stem verbs whose stems end in -i. The dictionary form is formed by attaching -ru to the stem, making an kana plus. Traditionally, the final syllable (Ci) of the stem is considered part of the inflecting suffix, so for example is segmented as, with the inflecting part being -riru. (If there is only one syllable in the stem, the whole word becomes the inflecting part.) As the final syllable in the stem does not change or affect the conjugational patterns, we will leave it out in the paradigm below.


 * Notes
 * 1) -ro is the spoken imperative and -yo is the written imperative.

Lower monograde (下一段 shimo ichidan)
Lower monograde (下一段 shimo ichidan) is the class of regular vowel stem verbs whose stems end in -e. The dictionary form is formed by attaching -ru to the stem, making an kana plus. Traditionally, the final syllable (Ce) of the stem is considered part of the inflecting suffix, so for example is segmented as, with the inflecting part being -beru. (If there is only one syllable in the stem, the whole word becomes the inflecting part.) As the final syllable in the stem does not change or affect the conjugational patterns, we will leave it out in the paradigm below.


 * Notes
 * 1) The imperatives -ro and -yo are as noted for upper monograde verbs. The verb くれる kureru “to give” has an irregular imperative form くれ kure.

k-irregular (カ行変格 ka-gyō henkaku)
This class holds the only irregular verb.


 * Notes
 * 1) Unlike other verbs, the Classical Japanese imperative forms ko and koyo are very rarely used even when trying to sound formal, archaic or stylistic. Such situations are usually handled instead by the suppletive, the imperative of the five-grade (godan).

s-irregular (サ行変格 sa-gyō henkaku)
This class holds the irregular verb. Note the suppletive potential form. When used as a light verb, it is usually used to turn an non-inflecting word into a verb such as, , in which case the conjugation is the same. However, a number of words which involve suru (mostly single kanji + suru) conjugate differently: those with suru after a /Q/, such as, have different causative and passive forms; those with suru voiced after a moraic nasal, such as , have a hybrid conjugation between s- irregular -zuru and kami ichidan -jiru; and some with suru after i or ku, such as , have a hybrid conjugation between s- irregular -suru and godan -su.


 * Notes
 * 1) When used with older auxiliaries such as the negative ぬ -nu, the older mizenkei, se- (ze- for zuru) is used.
 * 2) The imperatives -ro and -yo are as noted for upper monograde verbs.

Inflected forms
In traditional Japanese grammar, verbs have the six basic forms called 活用形 katsuyōkei listed below, from which most of their inflected forms can be derived.

Notes: 未然形 mizenkei “irrealis” is named after its use with -ba in Classical Japanese:  kaka ba “if one writes”, in contrast with the realis  kake ba “as, when, because one writes”. It is a stem used to form the negative, passive, causative, and the volitional. 連用形 ren'yōkei is named in reference to its use followed by 用言 yōgen “inflecting words”. It is the infinitive as an inflected form, and also a stem used to form some inflected forms as well as compound verbs. 終止形 shūshikei is the conclusive, and is also the “plain” or “dictionary form” in which verbs are generally cited. 連体形 rentaikei is named in reference to its use followed by 体言 taigen “non-inflecting words”. It is the adnominal, also used to conclude a clause modifying a noun. In modern Japanese the shūshikei always has the same shape as the rentaikei, but in Classical Japanese it does not for some classes. 仮定形 kateikei “hypothetical” is a stem only used with -ba to form the provisional conditional. 命令形 meireikei is the imperative.

There are a large number of suffixes that can follow verbs to express grammatical categories in Japanese, and this section deals with suffixes that are not verbs themselves. Note that a verb can be conjugated several times by chaining auxiliaries, e.g. to the causative  then to the polite form  and finally to the negative. As such, the actual number of inflected forms of a verb can be very large. The most common, one-level inflected forms of verbs are listed below:


 * Note
 * has the irregular onbin stem iQ-, hence the past is, the conjunctive is , etc. Otherwise, it is a regular godan verb with -k stem.


 * Notes
 * 1) The honorific verbs, , , ,  have irregular imperative forms and ren'yōkei stems used with the auxiliary verb , formed by changing the -r to -i (rather than the regular ren'yōkei -ri or imperative -re). Otherwise, they are regular godan verbs with -r stems.
 * 2) The verb  has the suppletive negative form, which is an adjective. Otherwise, it is a regular godan verb with -r stem.
 * 3) The verbs  and  have irregular onbin stems formed by changing the -w to a lengthening mora, hence the past is, , the conjunctive is , , etc. Otherwise, they are regular godan verb with -w stems.


 * Note
 * The verb has the irregular imperative form . Otherwise, it is a regular shimo ichidan verb.


 * Note
 * Unlike other verbs, the Classical Japanese forms ko and koyo are never used for the imperative even when trying to sound formal, archaic or stylistic. Such situations are instead handled by the suppletive kitare きたれ, the imperative of the five-grade (godan) verb kitaru きたる.

When there are several auxiliaries following a verb, they generally occur in this order:
 * Causative -seru ~ -saseru
 * Passive/spontaneous/honorific(/potential) -reru ~ -rareru (~ -eru)
 * Desiderative -tai (if this suffix is present, further inflection becomes i-adjective like)
 * Polite -masu
 * Negative -nai, -nu ~ -n
 * Evidential -sō (if this suffix is present, further inflection becomes na-adjective like; not used with -masu)
 * Suffixes expressing obligatory categories

The causative and passive auxiliaries have shimo ichidan conjugation. The desiderative auxiliary -tai have adjectival inflection. The evidential -sō behaves like a nominal. The other two non-final auxiliaries, polite -masu and negative -nai, have the following paradigms:


 * Note
 * Compared with, is more old-fashioned while  n can be colloquial, old-fashioned or dialectal (except that it is mandatory after ).
 * The conjunctive form and  have different uses: when linking verbs, the former simply joins two clauses while the latter means "without", equivalent to . The former is used with the conditional particle  and the concessive particle, while the latter is used with auxiliary verbs like , , , e.g. ,.
 * As with i-adjectives, the volitional is now largely replaced by  +.

Basic inflected forms
Here are the first set of inflected forms commonly taught in textbooks.


 * Plain forms


 * Polite forms

Note: The verb aru ある “to be, to exist” does not have the negative formed in this way. The plain negative is the adjective nai ない “nonexistent, not be”, and the polite negative is nai desu ないです or arimasen ありません.

All these forms can occur in the predicate position of a sentence (i.e. at the end, where the plain form is considered to be in the shūshikei form).



The plain forms can also be used to modify a noun, or in the predicate position of a clause modifying a noun, when occurring before it (here the plain form is to be considered in the rentaikei form in traditional grammar):



Infinitive
The infinitive (ren'yōkei), apart from deriving nouns or used in the construction of compound verbs, can be used for the non-final predicates when linking several predicates together in a sentence.



This is called 連用中止 ren'yō chūshi and it is mainly used in written language. The non-final predicates do not conjugate for tense or politeness. Iru いる “to be” in these positions are usually replaced by its humble form oru おる and put in ren'yōkei as ori おり.

Another use of the infinitive is in the grammar pattern verb/clause + ni + motion verb.



Certain kinds of compound verbs are produced by attaching a word to the continuative form of a verb; for example:, ,. Other constructions include, , (used only between friends or to someone of a lower rank),.

Conjunctive form with て
The conjunctive or te form is spinoff of the continuative form by attaching the particle to it. For godan (five-grade) verbs, the same kinds of sound changes with ～た applies. The particle can be used to link several predicates together, as illustrated below:



When used at the end of a sentence it makes a light command:

More often, this form is part of certain kinds of expressions: (after doing something),  (it's OK to do something),  (it's not ok to do something),  (please do something),  (to be doing something),  (to be in the state of ...),  (to be always doing something),  (to do something to others),  (to do something for me),  (to receive the favor of doing something),  (to do something in preparation),  (to do something completely or accidentally),  (to try doing something), etc. When followed by motion verbs like  and  as a set expression, the basic meaning is to do something towards a direction (e.g.  is "return",  is "go back", while  is "come back"), and the notion of the direction can be abstract (towards the future, up to the present, come to the state, etc.)

Imperative form
The imperative form is often irregular in honorific speech; in other cases it can be rude in everyday conversation except when quoted or used in -clauses. With a spoken/written register denotion where present, they are conjugated in the following fashion:
 * godan verbs: change the -u to -e. For example, becomes.
 * ichidan verbs: change the -ru to -ro/-yo. For example, becomes /.
 * irregular verbs: kuru becomes koi/koyo, suru becomes shiro/seyo.

Volitional form
The volitional form carries the meaning of "let's do something". It has the same meaning when used alone and means "try to do" when followed by. It also means "I want to do something", but a less direct way to say this is to follow it by. The conjugation is:
 * godan verbs: change the -u to -ō. For example, becomes.
 * ichidan verbs: change the -ru to -yō. For example, becomes.
 * irregular verbs: kuru becomes koyō, suru becomes shiyō.

Hypothetical conditional form
One way to say "if" is to attach to the  of a verb, which is formed by changing the final vowel u (whether in -u, -ru, kuru, suru) to an e. "AばB" implies that A is a condition for B to happen.

Potential form

 * godan verbs: change the -u to -eru. For example, becomes.
 * ichidan verbs: change the -ru to -rareru. For example, becomes.
 * irregular verbs: kuru becomes korareru, suru becomes dekiru.

The result can be further conjugated like an ichidan verb; for example, (unbelievable). Informally, the ra can be left out (a practice called ).

Causative form

 * godan verbs: change the -u to -a (but -wa if it has no consonant) and attach seru. For example, becomes.
 * ichidan verbs: change the -ru to -saseru. For example, becomes.
 * irregular verbs: kuru becomes kosaseru, suru becomes saseru.

The result can be further conjugated like an ichidan verb. Sometimes the せる is abbreviated as a single す and conjugates as godan verbs. The object is usually introduced with, but when there is another object with (such as "A made B sing a song"),  is used instead.

Passive form

 * godan verbs: change the -u to -a (but -wa if it has no consonant) and attach reru. For example, becomes.
 * ichidan verbs: change the -ru to -rareru. For example, becomes.
 * irregular verbs: kuru becomes korareru, suru becomes sareru.

The result can be further conjugated like an ichidan verb. Aside from the passive voice (where the performer of the verb is introduced with or ), the form is also used to show politeness in which case the sentence structure does not change. In casual speech, the せる can be abbreviated as a single す and conjugates as godan verbs. Sometimes, in a phenomenon called the 'suffering passive', the passive form is used, particularly with intransitive verbs, to express that the thing done was somehow regrettable for the speaker; for example, is not "[I] was run away by the rabbit", but "the rabbit ran away, unfortunately [for me]". One may compare this to the similarly functioning structure within expressions such as 'died on me', 'ran out on me'.

Causative passive form

 * godan verbs: change the -u to -a (but -wa if it has no consonant) and attach serareru. For example, becomes.
 * ichidan verbs: change the -ru to -saserareru. For example, becomes.
 * irregular verbs: kuru becomes kosaserareru, suru becomes saserareru.

In godan verbs, except those that end in, the middle part of the causative passive would frequently contract. For example, would contract to. Likewise, the result can be further conjugated as an ichidan verb.

Irregular conjugation related to polite speech

 * The imperative form of is くれ.
 * The imperative form of some godan verbs have the ru replaced with i:

The i-ending imperative forms are identical to the continuative verb stem (the ren'yōkei). As such, these may be followed by the -mase imperative form of polite suffix -masu. This results in a polite command, and for the appropriate verbs, this makes a greeting more polite:


 * Similarly, ございます comes from ござる, which is a humble form of ある.

Transitivity
Japanese transitive and intransitive verbs are called and  in Japanese respectively. Intransitive verbs usually only take a subject marked with or, while transitive verbs can also take an object marked with.



Intransitive verbs may also take a noun phrase that would be considered an "object" in English. This is mostly marked by, similar to an indirect object.



Motion verbs can also be used with the object particle (adding the meaning of 'through'), despite their intransitive status in Japanese.



When a transitive verb is affixed with to express desire (becoming an adjective), or in the potential form (becoming intransitive), it would then usually be marked with, with  seeing occasional use despite proscription.



Passive forms usually become intransitive and causative forms  usually become transitive. forms usually become intransitive.



Verb pairs
A Japanese verb pair consists of a transitive verb and an intransitive verb sharing the same root, with the former serving as the causative/active voice, and the latter as the mediopassive voice.




 * Transitivity counterpart constructed on the same root with inflection (modern ).
 * inflection as transitive:
 * {| style="border-collapse:collapse; background: #f9f9f9;" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"

!! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Verb pair !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Transitivity !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Old Japanese !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Modern Japanese
 * rowspan = "2" | to attach
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * rowspan = "2" | to lengthen
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * }
 * inflection as intransitive:
 * {| style="border-collapse:collapse; background: #f9f9f9;" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
 * intrans. || ||
 * }
 * inflection as intransitive:
 * {| style="border-collapse:collapse; background: #f9f9f9;" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"

!! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Verb pair !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Transitivity !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Old Japanese !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Modern Japanese
 * rowspan = "2" | to burn
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * }
 * Transitives may be constructed by attaching Old Japanese auxiliary verb, and intransitives constructed by attaching Old Japanese auxiliary verb (or rarely ), them being equivalent to modern , , and , respectively.
 * With す:
 * {| style="border-collapse:collapse; background: #f9f9f9;" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
 * With す:
 * {| style="border-collapse:collapse; background: #f9f9f9;" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"

!! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Verb pair !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Transitivity !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Old Japanese !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Modern Japanese
 * rowspan = "2" | to decrease
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * rowspan = "2" | to wake
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * rowspan = "2" | to fill
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * }
 * With る or ゆ:
 * {| style="border-collapse:collapse; background: #f9f9f9;" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * }
 * With る or ゆ:
 * {| style="border-collapse:collapse; background: #f9f9f9;" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
 * {| style="border-collapse:collapse; background: #f9f9f9;" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"

!! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Verb pair !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Transitivity !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Old Japanese !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Modern Japanese
 * rowspan = "2" | to sting/to be stung
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * rowspan = "2" | to raise/to rise
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * rowspan = "2" | to see/to seem
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * }
 * With both:
 * {| style="border-collapse:collapse; background: #f9f9f9;" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * }
 * With both:
 * {| style="border-collapse:collapse; background: #f9f9f9;" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
 * {| style="border-collapse:collapse; background: #f9f9f9;" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"

!! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Verb pair !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Transitivity !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Old Japanese !! bgcolor="#E0E0FF" | Modern Japanese
 * rowspan = "2" | to transfer
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * rowspan = "2" | to stray
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * rowspan = "2" | to move close
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * rowspan = "2" | to erase
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * }
 * intrans. || ||
 * rowspan = "2" | to erase
 * trans. || ||
 * intrans. || ||
 * }
 * intrans. || ||
 * }
 * }

Stem forms
These are the basic forms of verbs as taught in Japan. Verbs have six associated stem forms; three of these each appear in two different ways that are not given separate names, but are used in disjoint contexts. The izenkei (, classical perfective form) is also called the kateikei (, hypothetical form in modern Japanese). The shūshikei (, terminal form) and rentaikei (, attributive form) are identical for verbs in modern Japanese.

The ren'yōkei (, -i form), shūshikei (, terminal form), rentaikei (, attributive form), and meireikei (, imperative form) can appear on their own. The other inflections require suffixes.

Other forms
Currently incomplete

Suffixes to the continuative (-i) form
There are several suffixes that attach to the continuative (-i) form. These are some of the most common:

=Classical Japanese= The following table shows the conjugations of classical verbs as well as the modern equivalents in. Note the “school grammar” terminology and notion of verb forms. Although not shown in this table, when the conjunctive form of a verb follows an auxiliary verb, a non-obligatory conjugation change called Onbin may be observed. A conjugation table for auxiliary verbs appears at Appendix:Japanese auxiliary verbs (todo).


 * The rōmaji are transliterations of the kana and do not necessarily reflect the actual sounds.

=References=