Japanese Verbs: Present Tense

Hello again. I was in the middle of writing up the next topic when I realized, I haven't talked about verb conjugation yet. So I think this is as good a time as any to introduce polite verb conjugation. Unlike verbs in English, the basics are very easy to learn and almost all verbs follow one of the two conjugation rules.

First, you have to identify if you're using an u-verb or ru-verb.

u-verbs are the usual verb you will come across and will end in the う vowel sound as highlighted in this chart. For present tense, the う sound will be changed into an い sound and then ます will be added to the end. For example:

聞く (きく)→ 聞きます (ききます)

ru-verbs are a little different. They're usually only verbs that end in an える sound. Keep in mind, not all verbs that end in the える sound are ru-verbs. For these verbs, the る is replaced with ます to make it present tense. Here's another example:

食べる (たべる)→ 食べます (たべます)

 There are also two irregular verbs to look out for: 来る (くる) and する.

The polite present tense of 来る (くる) is 来ます (きます) and する is します. You'll cover these verbs at a later time, but it is good to be aware of them for now.

That's everything you're going to need to know for the polite present form of Japanese verbs. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment. Happy studying!