Question 1

How do you conjugate Japanese verbs into the ます form?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the verb class. For an ichidan verb, drop the final る and add ます: 食べる becomes 食べます, 見る becomes 見ます. For a godan verb, move the final syllable to the い-row and add ます: 読む becomes 読みます, 書く becomes 書きます, 買う becomes 買います, 待つ becomes 待ちます. The two irregulars are する, which becomes します, and 来る, which becomes 来ます and is read きます rather than くます. This tool shows the transformation for any of 111 beginner verbs with the rule named.

Question 2

How do you know if a Japanese verb is godan or ichidan?

Accepted Answer

The reliable test is the ない form. If ない attaches to an あ-row syllable - 読まない, 買わない, 待たない - the verb is godan. If ない attaches straight to the stem - 食べない, 見ない - it is ichidan. The shortcut of checking whether the verb ends in いる or える works most of the time but fails on nine common verbs that end that way and conjugate as godan anyway: 帰る, 入る, 走る, 切る, 知る, 要る, 限る, 滑る and 減る. This tool labels those nine explicitly.

Question 3

What are the て-form sound change rules?

Accepted Answer

For godan verbs the final syllable determines the change. う, つ and る become って (買って, 待って, 取って). む, ぶ and ぬ become んで (読んで, 遊んで, 死んで). く becomes いて (書いて) and ぐ becomes いで (泳いで). す becomes して (話して). The single exception is 行く, which gives 行って rather than 行いて. Ichidan verbs simply replace る with て: 食べて, 見て. する gives して and 来る gives 来て, read きて. The past た form follows exactly the same pattern with て replaced by た and で by だ.

Question 4

Is this Japanese verb conjugator free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. It runs entirely in your browser with no account, no signup and no data sent anywhere. It covers 111 verbs at JLPT N5 and N4 level across fifteen forms, shows both the kanji spelling and the kana reading for every form, and includes a drill mode whose wrong answers are deliberately built from the most common learner errors - applying the other verb class, or the wrong て-form sound change - so that each mistake teaches the rule it breaks.

Japanese Verb Conjugator & Drill

How Japanese verb conjugation actually works

Ichidan verbs (一段) — the simple class

Godan verbs (五段) — the five-row class

Telling them apart

The て and た sound changes

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