Japanese Verb Conjugation: The Complete Beginner's Guide

If particles are the glue of Japanese sentences, verbs are the engine — and conjugating them is where a lot of learners feel the language get real. The good news: Japanese verb conjugation is far more regular than the verb systems of English, French, or Spanish. There’s no changing the verb for “I/you/he/they”, and once you know which of three groups a verb belongs to, the endings follow predictable patterns. This guide walks through the whole system clearly.

This sits in the grammar cluster alongside the Japanese particles guide and the は vs が guide. For the full roadmap, see the complete guide to learning Japanese.

The one big simplification

Before the patterns, the best news in Japanese grammar: verbs don’t change for person or number. 食べる (taberu, to eat) is identical whether the subject is I, you, he, she, or they. Compare that to English (eat/eats) or French (mange/manges/mangeons…) — Japanese just doesn’t do it.

What verbs do change for is tense (present/past), polarity (positive/negative), politeness (plain/polite), and grammatical form (て-form, potential, etc.). That’s the whole game.

The three verb groups

Every Japanese verb belongs to one of three groups. Identifying the group is step one for any conjugation.

Group 2: る-verbs (ichidan)

These end in -iru or -eru and are the easiest — you just drop る and add the ending.

• 食べる (taberu) — to eat
• 見る (miru) — to see
• 寝る (neru) — to sleep

Group 1: う-verbs (godan)

These end in a range of -u sounds (く, ぐ, す, つ, ぬ, ぶ, む, る, う). When you conjugate, that final sound shifts.

• 飲む (nomu) — to drink
• 書く (kaku) — to write
• 話す (hanasu) — to speak

Group 3: irregular

Just two verbs, memorised:

• する (suru) — to do
• 来る (kuru) — to come

Telling る-verbs from う-verbs

The rule: ends in -eru/-iru → usually a る-verb. But a few look-alike exceptions end in -eru/-iru yet behave as う-verbs:

• 帰る (kaeru) — to return
• 入る (hairu) — to enter
• 走る (hashiru) — to run

Memorise the handful of exceptions; everything else follows the rule.

Polite form (ます): the textbook default

The first conjugation you learn. It’s the safe, formal register.

私はお茶を飲みます。 (watashi wa ocha o nomimasu.) — “I drink tea.”

Plain (dictionary) form and casual speech

Plain form is the verb as it appears in the dictionary: 食べる, 飲む, する. You use it with friends and family, in writing, and — crucially — it’s required inside many grammar structures (before nouns, in conditionals, etc.).

お茶を飲む。 (ocha o nomu.) — “I drink tea.” (casual)

You need both registers: polite to speak appropriately, plain because so much grammar attaches to it. Most learners start polite (N5) and add plain around N4.

The past tense

Polite past is simple — swap ます for ました: 飲みます → 飲みました (drank).

Plain past is where う-verbs get interesting, because the ending depends on the final sound (this mirrors the て-form below):

The negative

Polite negative swaps ます for ません: 飲みます → 飲みません (don’t drink).

Plain negative uses ない:

(Note: for う-verbs ending in う, it becomes -wa: 買う → 買わない.)

The て-form: the most important conjugation

If you master one conjugation early, make it the て-form. On its own it doesn’t mean past — it’s a connector that unlocks a huge range of grammar:

• Requests: 食べてください (tabete kudasai) — “please eat.”
• Continuous action: 食べている (tabete iru) — “am eating.”
• Linking actions: 食べて、行く (tabete, iku) — “eat and then go.”
• Permission: 食べてもいい (tabete mo ii) — “may eat.”

The te-form patterns follow the verb group (and match the plain-past た patterns):

These look like a lot, but they’re the same sound changes as the plain past — learn them once and you get both.

More forms you’ll meet

Once the basics are solid, these round out your verbs (mostly N4 territory):

Don’t rush these — they click as you meet them in real sentences.

Why patterns alone aren’t enough

You can learn every table here in an afternoon, but producing and recognising conjugations at speed is a different skill. Native speakers don’t mentally run “う-verb, final sound む, so て-form is んで” — it’s automatic. That automaticity comes from massive exposure: meeting conjugated verbs in real context over and over until the right form just appears.

So treat these tables as the rules, then go get the reps.

Build verb intuition by reading

The most efficient way to make conjugations automatic is to read and listen to Japanese at your level, where every sentence is full of verbs in their natural forms — past, て-form, negative, potential — used correctly.

That’s what Shinobi’s graded stories are built for. Start at JLPT N5 stories, where simple sentences let you spot ます and basic past forms, then climb to N4 — where the て-form and casual speech come alive — and N3 as your grasp grows. Total beginner? Begin with pre-N5 stories, or browse the full library. For the method behind reading your way to fluency, see how to read Japanese.

Next, widen your grammar with the Japanese particles guide and the は vs が guide, and if you’re testing soon, line up the JLPT N4 guide.