The Japanese ます Form: Present, Negative, Three Verb Groups

Every Japanese verb has a polite form ending in ます, and its negative ends in ません. That is how you speak to anyone you do not know well, and it is the form this course teaches first. Making it takes one of three rules, depending on the verb's group.

What ます does

The dictionary form, such as 食たべる, is the plain form: fine with friends and family, and how every dictionary lists the verb. The ます form is the same verb made polite.

• パンを食たべます。 - I eat bread.
• パンを食たべません。 - I do not eat bread.

ます covers the present and the future, because Japanese splits time into past and non-past:

• 毎日まいにちコーヒーを飲のみます。 - I drink coffee every day.
• 今日きょう、日本にほんに行いきます。 - I am going to Japan today.

Ichidan verbs: drop る

Ichidan verbs (also called ru-verbs) all end in -iru or -eru. Drop the final る and add ます or ません:

• テレビを見みます。 - I watch TV.
• 先生せんせいは家いえにいます。 - The teacher is at home.

Godan verbs: u becomes i

Godan verbs (u-verbs) are the majority. Change the last u sound to the matching i sound from the same hiragana row, then add ます:

This is the hiragana chart at work: the verb slides from the u column to the i column of its own row.

• 友達ともだちに会あいます。 - I am meeting a friend.
• 日本語にほんごを話はなしません。 - I do not speak Japanese.
• 分わかりません。 - I do not understand.

The two irregulars

Only two everyday verbs break the rules in the ます form, and both are among the commonest in the language:

Watch 来くる: the kanji stays the same but its reading changes, from ku to ki. 友達ともだちが来きます。 is "A friend is coming".

する also turns many nouns into verbs: 仕事しごとをします。 is "I work", literally I do work.

The 帰る trap

Here is the catch. Every ichidan verb ends in -iru or -eru, but not every -iru or -eru verb is ichidan. A few are godan, and they take り:

From the dictionary form alone you cannot tell 帰かえる from 寝ねる. Learn the group with each -iru or -eru verb: the word pages on this site show it.

Verbs ending in -aru, -uru or -oru are never ichidan. Apart from the irregulars する and 来くる, they are godan: 分わかる and ある give 分わかります and あります.

The course's verbs

The core verbs of the first hundred words, with their polite forms:

The other verbs in the chapter follow the same rules:

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Take each verb in the chart and say its ます and ません forms aloud.
2. Put each into a sentence with a particle: コーヒーを飲のみます, 友達ともだちに会あいます.
3. Every new -iru or -eru verb: check its group before you use it.