Vocabulary

食べる(た・べる) ru-verb

to eat

分かる(わ・かる) u-verb

to understand

見る(み・る) ru-verb

to see

寝る(ね・る) ru-verb

to sleep

起きる(お・きる) ru-verb

to wake; to occur

考える(かんが・える) ru-verb

to think

教える(おし・える) ru-verb

to teach; to inform

出る(で・る) ru-verb

to come out

いる ru-verb

to exist (animate)

着る(き・る) ru-verb

to wear

話す(はな・す) u-verb

to speak

聞く(き・く) u-verb

to ask; to listen

泳ぐ(およ・ぐ) u-verb

to swim

遊ぶ(あそ・ぶ) u-verb

to play

待つ(ま・つ) u-verb

to wait

飲む(の・む) u-verb

to drink

買う(か・う) u-verb

to buy

ある u-verb

to exist (inanimate)

死ぬ(し・ぬ) u-verb

to die

する exception

to do

来る(く・る) exception

to come

お金(お・かね)

money

私(わたし)

me, myself, I

猫(ねこ)

cat

We’ve now learned how to describe nouns in various ways with other nouns and adjectives. This gives us quite a bit of expressive power. However, we still cannot express actions. This is where verbs come in. Verbs, in Japanese, always come at the end of clauses. Since we have not yet learned how to create more than one clause, for now it means that any sentence with a verb must end with the verb. We will now learn the three main categories of verbs, which will allow us to define conjugation rules. Before learning about verbs, there is one important thing to keep in mind.

Or to rephrase, unlike English, the only thing you need to make a grammatically complete sentence is a verb and nothing else! That’s why even the simplest, most basic Japanese sentence cannot be translated into English!

A grammatically complete sentence:

• 食べる(た・べる)。
  Eat. (possible translations include: I eat/she eats/they eat)

Examples

1. 食べる(た・べる) – べ is an e-vowel sound so it is a ru-verb

2. 分かる(わ・かる) – か is an a-vowel sound so it is an u-verb

If you’re unsure which category a verb falls in, you can verify which kind it is with most dictionaries. There are only two exception verbs that are neither ru-verbs nor u-verbs as shown in the table below.

Examples

Here are some example sentences using ru-verbs, u-verbs, and exception verbs.

1. アリス(a ri su)は食べる(た・べる)。
   As for Alice, eat.

2. ジム(ji mu)が来る(く・る)。
   Jim is the one that comes.

3. ボブ(bo bu)もする。
   Bob also do.

4. お金(お・かね)がある。
   There is money. (lit: Money is the thing that exists.)

5. 私(わたし)は買う(か・う)。
   As for me, buy.

6. 猫(ねこ)はいる。
   There is cat. (lit: As for cat, it exists.)

Vocabulary

要る(い・る) u-verb

to need

帰る(かえ・る) u-verb

to go home

切る(き・る) u-verb

to cut

しゃべる u-verb

to talk

知る(し・る) u-verb

to know

入る(はい・る) u-verb

to enter

走る(はし・る) u-verb

to run

減る(へ・る) u-verb

to decrease

焦る(あせ・る) u-verb

to be in a hurry

限る(かぎ・る) u-verb

to limit

蹴る(け・る) u-verb

to kick

滑る(すべ・る) u-verb

to be slippery

握る(にぎ・る) u-verb

to grasp

練る(ね・る) u-verb

to knead

参る(まい・る) u-verb

to go; to come

交じる(まじ・る) u-verb

to mingle

嘲る(あざけ・る) u-verb

to ridicule

覆る(くつがえ・る) u-verb

to overturn

遮る(さえぎ・る) u-verb

to interrupt

罵る(ののし・る) u-verb

to abuse verbally

捻る(ひね・る) u-verb

to twist

翻る(ひるが・える) u-verb

to turn over; to wave

滅入る(めい・る) u-verb

to feel depressed

蘇る(よみがえ・る) u-verb

to be resurrected

Below is a list of u-verbs with a preceding vowel sound of /i/ or /e/ (“iru” or “eru” sound endings). The list is not comprehensive but it does include many of the more common verbs categorized roughly into three levels.