Japanese Verbs at a Glance

Now we can go on to the actual tenses. Japanese doesn't have the number of tenses we have in English, but it's still nothing to sneeze at. Here are the three most basic tenses there are.

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Non-Past Tense - Also known as the present tense. The non-past tense is the most basic tense in Japanese. From this tense, you can form all the other tenses in the Japanese language. It is also the dictionary form, so when you go to look a word up, you need to figure out its non-past form first.

One nice thing about Japanese is that verbs don't change forms depending on the subject. There's one form for each tense which is used for all subjects.

The non-past form gets it's name from the fact it encompases habitual, present, near-future, and future tenses. In addition to that, it also works as a conditional tense when you have an if-statement before it.

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Past Tense - Also known as the perfect tense. The past tense works just like our past tense. However, it is a bit difficult to form. The general ending for past tense verbs is "ta" and sometimes "da." Here's how you form it.

RU Verbs - Remove final "ru" and add "ta."
taberu (to eat) -> tabe -> tabeta

U Verbs - Each ending has a special suffix:
su -> shita (hanasu [to speak] -> hanahita)
ku -> ita (kaku [to write] -> kaita)
gu -> ida (oyogu [to swim] -> oyoida)

tsu-> tta (tatsu [to stand] -> tatta)
u --> tta (kau [to buy] -> katta)
ru -> tta (suwaru [to sit] -> suwatta)

nu -> nda (shinu [to die] -> shinda)
bu -> nda (tobu [to fly] -> tonda)
mu -> nda (nomu [to drink] -> nonda)

Irregular -
suru -> shita
kuru -> kita

Semi-Irregular - The verb iku" (to go) is irregular only in the past and conjunctive tenses.
iku -> itta (this is also the past tense of the verb "iu" [to say])

Copula -
normal: da -> datta
old: de aru -> de atta

I Adjectives - Remove the final "i" and add "katta."
yasashii (easy) -> yasashikatta
ii (good) -> yoi -> yokatta

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Negative Form - This corresponds to English's negative form.

RU Verbs - Remove final "ru" and add "nai"
taberu (to eat) -> tabe -> tabenai

U Verbs - Remove the final "-u" and add "-anai." If the verb ends in "u" alone, add "wanai" instead.
hanasu (to speak) -> hanas -> hanasanai
kau (to buy) -> ka -> kawanai

Irregular -
suru -> shinai
kuru -> konai

Semi-Irregular - The verb "aru" (to be) does not have a negative form. Instead, we use the adjective "nai" (to not be).

Copula -
Normal: da -> de wa nai ("wa" is written "ha" in kana b/c it's the topic marker; de wa is often contracted to ja)
Old: de aru -> de wa nai (this is the same as the normal copula)

I Adjectives - Remove the final "i" and add "ku" and then add the negative adjective "nai." The suffix "ku" is actually the adverb suffix and is the same as "ly" in English.
yasashii (easy) -> yasashiku -> yasashiku nai
ii (good) -> yoi -> yoku -> yoku nai

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Negative Past - You can also make sentences in the past tense negative. You may notice that all the negative verbs end in either the suffix "nai" or the negative adjective "nai" (the difference is the suffix is not a word of its own). Simply replace it with the past of the negative adjective "nakatta" to make any negative verb past tense.

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