Ch 1 · Lesson 18Japanese · Chapter 1 · Lesson 18 · Grammar primer
The ます form and the three verb groups
Every verb you have met so far, made polite: , , . And the one rule that sorts verbs into three groups.
The short version
Japanese verbs never change for I, you or they
。。
Why?Hide
is I eat, you eat, she eats and they eat alike. Japanese verbs carry politeness and tense in their endings, never person. Who is doing it comes from the context, and very often it is simply left out.
The -eru verbs that are not what they look like
うち 。
Why?Hide
Most verbs ending in -eru or -iru drop the る to make ま: , . A handful look identical but follow the other pattern, and かえる (to go home) is the one you meet first: , not えま. Learn the exceptions as you meet them, not as a list.
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Lesson 18 of 29 in this chapter