Japanese Verb Course | Marshall's Site

Teacher

Marshall

Verb Course

Lesson 1: How to classify Japanese Verbs?

In this lesson, I will teach you how to classify Japanese Verbs.

Japanese has 4 verb types:
①Type-1 Verb（aka godan verb）
②Type-2 Verb（aka ichidan verb）
③Type-3 Verb（aka suru-verb）
④Irregular Verb.

You may ask: how do I find out a verb’s type?
No worries, I will teach you in this lesson.

Question 1: What is Type-1 Verb?

Type-1 Verbs are verbs like below.

Note:
◯ stands for kanji, hiragana or a mixture of hiragana and kanji.

Pattern	Examples
○う	会あう→ to meet，買かう→to buy
○く	書かく→ to write，行いく→to go
○ぐ	嗅かぐ→to smell，泳およぐ→to swim
○す	押おす→to push，殺ころす→to kill
○つ	打うつ→to hit，待まつ→to wait
○ぬ	死しぬ→to die
○ぶ	呼よぶ→to call，飛とぶ→to fly
○む	飲のむ→to drink，読よむ→to read

Pattern	Note	Examples
○る	the hiragana next to る is NOT in the i-column(い、き、し…) or e-column(え、け、せ…).	やる→to do 去さる→to leave 折おる→to fold 祈いのる→to pray 被かぶる→to put on (hats) 送おくる→to send

Question 2: What is the Type-2 Verb?

Type-2 Verbs are verbs like below.

Pattern	Note	Examples
○る	the hiragana next to る is in the i-column(い、き、し…).	見みる→to see 降おりる→to get off
○る	the hiragana next to る is in the e-column(え、け、せ…).	食たべる→to eat 冷ひえる→to get cold

Question 3：What is the Type-3 Verb?

Type-3 Verbs are verbs like below.

Pattern	Examples
Two or more Kanji + する	勉べん強きょうする→to learn 成功せいこうする→be successful
one kanji + する	察さっする→to sympathize 接せっする→to touch

Question 4：What is Irregular Verb?

There are only two Irregular Verbs in Japanese，来くる and する.
Their rules are irregular, but they are easy to remember.

Exceptions:

The table below are 27 Type-1 Verbs that don’t follow the rules above.
They are Type-1 Verbs, but they look like Type-2 Verbs.

Tip: You don’t need to remember them all at once, it’s not effective.
Just remember them when you meet them.
Some of them are often used so it won’t be hard for you to remember.

Japanese	Reading	English
帰る	かえる	to go home
切る	きる	to cut
減る	へる	to decrease
要る	いる	need
知る	しる	to know
走る	はしる	to run
入る	はいる	to come in
返る	かえる	to return
滑る	すべる	to slip
参る	まいる	to come、to go
混じる	まじる	to mix
握る	にぎる	to squeeze
煎る	いる	to roast
練る	ねる	to knead
散る	ちる	to scatter
照る	てる	to shine
蹴る	ける	to kick
焦る	あせる	to be in a hurry
限る	かぎる	to limit
湿る	しめる	to damp
茂る	しげる	to grow thick
遮る	さえぎる	to obstruct
罵る	ののしる	to abuse
嘲る	あざける	to ridicule
漲る	みなぎる	to be full of water
覆る	くつがえる	to overturn
喋る	しゃべる	to say

Note:

In the next section, you will learn how to convert Japanese verbs to different forms.
It seems that there are a lot of different forms, but only four forms are very important:
①Polite Form
②Past Tense Form
③Negative Form
④Te Form

If you don’t want to learn all forms at once, be sure to master these four first, and feel free to come back and learn other forms when you have time.

Note: You can find some verb conjugation quizzes in the nav menu [Quiz].

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