Basic forms for Japanese learners part 2 - Changing to -te and -ta form

If you have the chance, try listening to a real Japanese talking. Japanese often use the -te form. The て or で form is used to connect words or sentences together. For example, たべて のんで いきます. Which literally means, “I eat, drink and go” It may seem like there is no meaning when you are saying, “I eat, drink and go”, but this is just a simple example to get you to understand how to use the て form.

た or だ form and て or で form

This is the past tense form. Whenever you want to express something in the past tense. You add a た or だ at the end of a verb. One example would be たべた. meaning “I ate”.

Take note that the て or で form can also be change the same way as the た or だ form. So here are some examples of other verbs that changes to the た or　だ form.

Group 1

• たべる、食べる 　becomes たべた、食べた ate
• おしえる、教える becomes おしえた、教えた taught

For the て form

• たべる、食べる 　becomes たべて、食べて
• おしえる、教える becomes おしえて、教えて

In this group, you can see that the る is drop and replace with a た or て. This is easy to understand. So you might ask, when do I simply drop the る and replace it with the た or て form? By looking at the suffix, anything before the る and only the る you can drop the る and change to た only. From the verb たべる and おしえる you can see that the suffix before る is べ and え.

So remember this, whenever you see a る after え、け、げ、せ、て、べ、ね、め or れ, you can drop the る and replace it with た or て form. If its not a る but a う、く、ぐ、つ、む、すor ぬ instead, you should look at the other groups below for more explanation.

Group 2

• のむ、飲む becomes のんだ、飲んだ drank
• すむ、住む becomes すんだ、住んだ lived (in this place, address)
• しぬ、死ぬ becomes しんだ、死んだ died

For て form

• のむ、飲む becomes のんで、飲んで
• すむ、住む becomes すんで、住んで
• しぬ、死ぬ becomes しんで、死んで

Now for this group, it gets a bit tricky. But once you get used to it, its easy to remember. The verbs, のむ、すむ and しぬ has a ん before the だ or で. The rule here is, whenever you see a む or ぬ at the end of the verb, add んだ or んで at the end of the it. So drop the む and replace it with んだ or んで. It might seem hard to remember all these Japanese verbs, but take your time, learning Japanese is a time consuming progress. Study Japanese with someone who is interested too.

Here is one more verb. Can you change it?

• よむ、読む (to read, will read) becomes ???

Group 3

• かく、書く becomes かいた、書いた wrote
• すう、吸う becomesすいた、すいた smoked, sucked, breathed (cigarette, tobacco)

For て form

• かく、書く becomes かいて、書いて
• すう、吸う becomesすいて、すいて

What differences can you tell from this group? The く and う is drop and it becomes いた or いて. Any verb that ends with a く or う will become いた or いて. There is one more verb below that I would like to teach you.

• かせぐ、稼ぐ(to earn income) becomes かせいだ、稼いだ

For て form

• かせぐ、稼ぐ(to earn income) becomes かせいで、稼いで

Can you spot the small difference the former and the latter? It’s the くand the ぐ. The く becomes a た or て while the ぐ becomes a だ or で.

Group 4

• はなす、話す (to speak. will speak) becomes はなした、話したspoke, talked

For て form

• はなす、話す (to speak. will speak) becomes はなして、話して

You just simply drop the す and change it to した or して.

Special Group

• すくう　救う(to save, to rescue)becomes すくった、救った
• くう、食う(to eat, a vulgar word use by males mostly) becomes くった、食った
• いう、言う (to say) becomes いった、言った

For て form

• すくう　救う(to save, to rescue)becomes すくって、救って
• くう、食う(to eat, a vulgar word use by males mostly) becomes くって、食って
• いう、言う (to say) becomes いって、言って

If you see a くand う together OR い and う together at the end of the verb, drop the う only and change it to った. Some might wonder why, well…because this is the rule. 

• くる、来る becomes きた、来たcame
• いく、行く becomes いった、行った went
• する becomes した did

For て form

• くる、来る becomes きて、来て
• いく、行く becomes いって、行って
• する becomes して

The remaining verbs are special, and are commonly use. So you only have to memorize them. Pay attention to their ending suffix. Here is a tip on learning these Japanese forms. Try to start finding other verbs from a Japanese dictionary, and then learn them by changing the dictionary forms from to another forms that you have learned.

That’s all for today’s guide to learning Japanese. In the next post, I will touch on the ない form. This is a form to show negation. I will also touch on the い and な adjectives, and how to change them to negation or past negation. It’s getting more complicating. But don’t worry, you will get used to learning Japanese. 

Learn Japanese with confidence!