In this article, we will talk about verbos japoneses, today we will study the dicionário form and the masu form. In other articles, we will study various conjugations.
In Japanese, verbs are not affected by the subject. In other words, whether the subject is singular or plural, first person or second person, the verbs do not change form. Regarding verb tenses, there are only two divisions of time; non-past (present and future) and past. Present and future tenses are the same and can be distinguished by context.
First, we have the simple and original form of the verb, the dictionar form. This form can be used in some casual occasions, let's use it as a basis to change the tense and verbal form in this article. In the dictionary form, all verbs end with the letter "U".
By learning the masu form and the dictionary form, we will be ready to learn new conjugations and forms of verbs.
Throughout the articles we will learn all the verb forms that are:
- the dictionary form (infinitive)
- the non-past form
- the negative form
- the form -ta (past tense)
- the way you
- transitive and intransitive forms
- the ive form (-areru, -rareru)
- the causative form (-aseru, -waseru)
- the potential form (-eru, -rareru)
- the conditional form (-eba, -tara)
- the imperative form (-nasai)
- the desiderative form (-tai)
- the volitional form (-ō)
Forma -masu ます形
The form "ます masu" is the formal way to speak a verb. Taking a verb from its dictionary form and converting it to the ます form varies according to its ending; verbs are divided into groups. (We will see more about this division of groups in another article).
To simplify this division and transformation, we should separate the verbs ending in "る - ru" from the other verbs. Once that is done, we can do the following:
- Verbs that do not end with "る" should have the last hiragana that ends with "U" replaced with the hiragana from the same group that ends with "i." See the table with some examples:
| Verb | Dictionary Form | Form -masu | Terminações |
| Speak | 話す (hanasu) | 話します | す = し |
| Write | to write | 書きます | く = ぎ |
| Swim | 泳ぐ (oyogu) | 泳ぎます | ぐ = ぎ |
| Read | 読む (yomu) | 読みます | む = み |
| Brincar | 遊ぶ (asobu) | 遊びます | ぶ = び |
| Levantar | 立つ (tatsu) | 立ちます | つ = ち |
| Die | 死ぬ (shinu) | 死にます | ぬ = に |
| Singing | 歌う (utau) | 歌います | う = い |
- There are verbs with "る" that should be replaced by "り," but there are verbs that end in "る" where you should remove the "る" and directly add "ます," such as (to eat - taberu - 食べる = 食べます). For this reason, you should focus on learning the words;
- There are other verbs that the rule of replacing the ending doesn't work, examples:
| Verb | Dictionary Form | Form -masu |
| Do | to do | will do |
| Vir | 来る (くる) | きます |
Now let's see how to conjugate verbs in the ます form according to their tense:
| Time | ます shape | Example (遊ぶ - asobu) |
|---|---|---|
| Present / Future | ます | 遊びます - Play |
| Negative | ません | 遊びません - Don't play |
| Past | ました | 遊びました - Joked |
| Negative Past | ませんでした | 遊びませんでした - No kidding |
- 本を読みます (ほんをよみます) - Read a book
- カラオケで 歌いました (カラオケで歌いました) - I sang karaoke
The same thing happens with the verb in the dictionary form. It is possible to conjugate the verb directly in the dictionary form without going to the masu form; for this, we need to learn more verb conjugations. But below I will leave some examples:
| Time | Example (遊ぶ - asobu) |
|---|---|
| Present / Future | 遊ぶ - Play |
| Negative | 遊ばない - Don't play |
| Past | 遊んだ - Joked |
| Negative Past | 遊ばなかった - No kidding |
- 本を読む (ほんをよむ) - Read a book
- カラオケで歌った (カラオケでうたった) - I sang karaoke
It is worth ing that there are other verb conjugations that we will study in another article, which use both the masu form and the dictionar form. We just need to keep in mind that the dictionar form is informal and the masu form is formal, and thus simplify our minds to conjugate the verbs in other forms.
how to exercise I would like them to comment on example sentences in the dictionary form and in the form "masu". Já vou agradecer aos comentários e compartilhamentos, e até a próxima!
We recommend the article about verbos na forma tai.
Test your knowledge of verbs by taking a quiz click here.
