Basic forms for Japanese learners part 1 - The Masu form

Learning Japanese may seem easy at first, but there are some forms that you must learn. These forms may suddenly make learning Japanese becoming very difficult at the beginning. But with practice and daily usage, you may soon find that learning Japanese isn’t that difficult after all. Let’s take a look at the basic forms that you will encounter most of the time.

ますform

It is important to learn polite Japanese in the beginning, this is to avoid being misunderstood by the Japanese people. Using the polite form is a good way to start knowing Japanese people. The ます form is a polite form. For example たべますtabemasu。Which means “eat” in a polite way of saying. As you can see that the -ますmasu form is added at the end of the word. All forms are added at the end of any verb. If you remember the common Japanese words that I posted last week, you probably be able to list some of them out on your own.

Dictionary or plain forms that has the う、く、す、つ、ぬ、む、る、suffix in any verb

Any verb that ends with a う、く、す、つ、ぬ、む or る is a plain form or also called a dictionary form. One example would be たべる”taberu”, where the る is added at the end of the verb. Is it important to learn the dictionary/plain form because when you come across any words that you are not familiar with, you will need to find the word in the dictionary. That is why it’s call a dictionary form or plain form. Dictionary or plain form is used mostly among friends. Never use the plain form to your Japanese teachers, your boss or even to someone you don’t know, like your Japanese acquaintances.

Some of the plain/dictionary forms are:

§  のむ、飲む(to drink, will drink) from のみます、飲みます

§  たべる、食べる (to eat, will eat) from たべます、食べます

§  かく、書く (to write, will write) from かきます、書きます

§  おしえる、教える (to teach, will teach) from おしえます、教えます

§  いく、行く (to go, will go) from いきます、行きます

These are certain special plain forms that you must remember, you have to memorize the 2 verbs below. No way to tell how to change to ます forms

§  くる、来る (to come, will come) becomes きます、来ます

§  する (to do, will do) becomes します

So how do you change from the plain/dictionary form to the -ますmasu form? Let’s take a look

§  のむ becomes のみます

§  いく　becomes いきます

§  かく becomes かきます

Let’s just look at the 3 examples above. You can see that the のむ which has the suffix む at the end of the verb, changes to み in the のみます. Can you see it? Now for いく, the く becomes　き in the いきます. And lastly, the かく, where the く becomes き in いきます. So all the う sounding changes and becomes the い sounding. Can you see it? The む and く are sounding from the う and the み and き are the sounding from the い. That is how you change it. Learning Japanese can be a chore, don’t you think? But the more you speak Japanese, the more likely you will become good at.

Now let’s look at the second group.

§  たべる　becomes たべます

§  おしえる becomes おしえます

You can see that anything before る is a え sounding. The べ and the え. For this group, where there is an え sounding, you should just drop the る only and add the ます. Just like that. One more verb for you to learn. 

かんがえる (to think, to consider) becomes ???