Verb Basics - U
Verb Basics - U
Conveys a habitual or future action
Japanese verbs play a crucial role in the structure of sentences, conveying actions, states, or occurrences. Unlike many Indo-European languages, such as English, French, or Spanish, Japanese verbs exhibit unique characteristics in terms of "conjugation" and structure.
conjugation
In Japanese, verbs do not change their forms based on the subject's person (I, you, he/she, etc.) or number (singular or plural) as extensively as in many other languages. For example, in English:
He goes home.
We go home.
Instead, the same few verb conjugations are used over and over, while the particles and context ultimately convey the nuanced information about the subject. This lack of subject-verb agreement simplifies verb conjugation in Japanese.
私は泳ぐ。
I swim.
I will swim.
(When telling others what you will do)
As you can see in this sentence, one of the important fundamentals of Japanese is that verbs appear at the end of a clause.
Special Note
A clause is a group of words containing a subject and a predicate that forms a part of a complex sentence. The sentence When it rained they went inside consists of two clauses: when it rained and they went inside.
And for those asking what the heck is a predicate?, a predicate is simply part of a sentence or clause that states something about the subject. In the sentence The dog sat on the grass, sat on the grass is the predicate.
tense
Verbs in Japanese are a bit different from verbs in, say, English. Japanese does not have a dedicated future tense, and all verbs in their dictionary form can express an action, a habitual action, or the future tense!
As is so often the case, the context is the key factor that points to an intended meaning.
彼は書く。
He writes.
He will write.
To make our lives easier when it comes to conjugations, we categorize verbs into three groups: u-verbs, ru-verbs and the irregulars. In this specific lesson we will cover u-verbs.
U-verbs can be recognized rather easily, with some exceptions. Every verb not ending in る is a u-verb. These endings are す、く、ぐ、ぶ、つ、む、う and ぬ.
If the verb ends in る and the vowel preceding る is either a, u or o, that verb is also a u-verb.
For example, the と in とる ends in an o vowel, so it's still classified as a u-verb.
You do not necessarily need to memorize these exceptions. Over time, through exposure, you will naturally remember how each verb is conjugated.
Depending on the source, this group of verbs may also be referred to as Godan verbs (五段 5-class). Other examples of u-verbs include:
Verb | Meaning |
|---|---|
to take out | |
to write | |
to swim | |
to read | |
to die | |
to fly | |
to go home | |
to stand | |
to buy |