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Japanese verbs: the three groups & how they change

Japanese verbs are far more regular than English ones — there's no "go / went / gone," and a verb never changes for who is doing the action. What it does change for is politeness, tense and whether it's positive or negative, and almost every verb follows one of just two patterns. Sort a verb into its group once and every other form falls out of it. Here's how the groups work, how to build the polite ます-form, and how the plain negative and past are made.

First, the easy part

Two facts make Japanese verbs gentler than you'd expect:

• One form fits every subject. 食べる means "I eat," "you eat," "she eats" and "they eat" — all at once. There's no ‑s on the third person, no agreement to remember, and no singular-vs-plural change.
• The verb comes last. Whatever else is in the sentence, the verb sits at the very end — パンを食べる, "(I) bread eat." That's the SOV word order the whole language is built around.

So conjugation isn't about matching a subject. It only answers three questions: is it polite or plain, past or not, and positive or negative? That's the entire job.

Two forms you'll meet first

Every verb has a dictionary (plain) form and a polite (ます) form. They mean the same thing; they just set the register.

Form	Example	Where you use it
Dictionary / plain	食べる taberu	Casual speech, with friends, and as the building block for almost every other form. It's the form you look up.
Polite / ます	食べます tabemasu	The safe, neutral-polite form for strangers, teachers, work — what most courses teach first.

Dictionaries always list the plain form, and it ends in one of the う-row sounds: う・く・ぐ・す・つ・ぬ・ぶ・む・る. That ending is the clue to which group a verb belongs to.

The three groups

Sorting a verb into its group is the one decision that controls everything else. There are only three.

Telling る-verbs from う-verbs

This is the one tricky part, and it has a clean rule:

• Doesn't end in る? It's always an う-verb (飲む, 書く, 話す, 買う).
• Ends in る? Look at the vowel just before it. An a / u / o sound — ある (aru), 作る (tsukuru), 乗る (noru) — means it's an う-verb. An i / e sound — 見る (miru), 食べる (taberu) — usually means a る-verb.

Making the polite ます-form

The ます-form is the most useful target, so start here.

From the dictionary form to ます

Group	Rule	Example
る-verb	drop る, add ます	食べる → 食べます 見る → 見ます
う-verb	final u-sound → its i-sound, add ます	飲む → 飲みます 書く → 書きます 待つ → 待ちます 買う → 買います
irregular	learn them	する → します 来る → 来ます (kimasu)

For う-verbs the shift is a sound, not a letter: む mu → み mi, く ku → き ki, つ tsu → ち chi, う u → い i. Once it's in ます, the rest is mechanical — the polite negative and past all live in that same ending:

Meaning	飲む (drink)
drink / will drink	飲みます
don't drink	飲みません
drank	飲みました
didn't drink	飲みませんでした

That four-cell box — ます / ません / ました / ませんでした — is the same for every verb in the language. Get a verb into its ます-stem and politeness, tense and negation are free.

The plain forms: negative ない and past た

The casual forms are built straight off the dictionary form. The negative ない ("don't / doesn't") is the tidy one:

Plain negative — …ない

Group	Rule	Example
る-verb	drop る, add ない	食べる → 食べない
う-verb	final u-sound → its a-sound, add ない	飲む → 飲まない 書く → 書かない
う-verb ending in う	う → わ (not あ), add ない	買う → 買わない 会う → 会わない
irregular	—	する → しない 来る → 来ない (konai)

One verb breaks the rule worth flagging now: ある ("to exist," for things) has no あらない — its plain negative is simply ない.

The past た — and the sound-changes behind it

For る-verbs and the irregulars, the plain past just swaps in た: 食べる → 食べた, する → した, 来る → 来た (kita). For う-verbs, though, the ending fuses with the た and changes sound — these little euphonic shifts are called onbin, and they're the same shifts that produce the all-important て-form (just swap た→て, だ→で).

If the onbin table looks like a lot, the comforting news is that it's finite — five endings, fixed shifts, no surprises — and the て-form you get for free from it is the single most reused piece of Japanese grammar: it links clauses, makes requests (…てください), and builds the progressive (…ている, "is ‑ing"). Nailing this table pays off everywhere.

The two irregulars in full

Only する and 来る are truly irregular — and 来る's quirk is that its reading changes even though the kanji doesn't:

Form	する (do)	来る (come)
dictionary	する suru	来る kuru
polite	します	来ます kimasu
plain negative	しない	来ない konai
plain past	した	来た kita
て-form	して	来て kite

する is the workhorse of the language because it turns nouns into verbs: 勉強 (study) → 勉強する (to study), 電話 (phone) → 電話する (to call). Learn する once and you've unlocked thousands of verbs.

Putting it together

1. Find the group. Not る? う-verb. Ends in る? Check the vowel before it (and watch the 帰る-type exceptions).
2. る-verbs are easy: drop る, then add ます / ない / た / て.
3. う-verbs shift their final sound: i for ます, a for ない, and the onbin shifts for past/て.
4. The ます box is universal: ます / ません / ました / ませんでした works for every verb.
5. Just two irregulars: する and 来る — memorise their short tables and the rest of the language is regular.

Common questions

What are the three Japanese verb groups?

る-verbs (ichidan / Group 2), where you drop る — 食べる → 食べます; う-verbs (godan / Group 1), where the final u-sound shifts — 飲む → 飲みます; and the two irregulars する and 来る. The group decides how every other form is built.

How do you make the polite ます-form?

る-verb: drop る, add ます (食べる → 食べます). う-verb: change the final u-sound to its i-sound, add ます (飲む → 飲みます, 書く → 書きます, 買う → 買います). Irregulars: します and 来ます (kimasu).

How can you tell a る-verb from an う-verb?

If it doesn't end in る, it's an う-verb. If it ends in る, the vowel before it decides: a/u/o (ある, 作る, 乗る) is an う-verb; i/e (見る, 食べる) is usually a る-verb. A few i/e verbs — 帰る, 入る, 切る, 走る — are う-verbs anyway and must be memorised.

Why is 飲む's past 飲んだ but 書く's is 書いた?

Because う-verb past tense uses sound-changes (onbin) that depend on the ending: む/ぶ/ぬ → んだ, く → いた, ぐ → いだ, す → した, and う/つ/る → った. The same shifts build the て-form (just た→て). The one exception is 行く → 行った.

Do Japanese verbs change for I, you, he or she?

No — one form covers every subject, singular or plural. A verb changes only for politeness, tense and positive/negative, and it always sits at the end of the sentence.

Next steps: see where the verb sits in word order & SOV, pair it with the right marker on the particles page, or learn the describing words in adjectives.