Posted by flint over 3 years ago
Learn how to conjugate verbs into the polite present, past and negative forms.
In the last lesson we learned how to conjugate from the dictionary form to the basic plain forms. In this lesson, we will learn how to conjugate to the basic polite forms.
The main difference between plain and polite forms is the social context that they are used in. As the names suggest, plain forms are used between friends and family while polite forms are used with people you are not so close to. You use polite forms when you are aware of a "distance" between you and the listener, and wish to pay them respect. Plain forms are used when you want to express your closeness and intimacy to the listener. As you meet people and make friends, you will transition from speaking using polite forms to becoming more casual and speaking in plain forms.
Be aware though that in certain social contexts the usage of plain and polite forms may not be mutual. Where there is an age difference, or a difference in social position (ie, student to teacher, or manager to employee situation), the more senior person may use plain forms when talking to the junior person, but it would be considered rude for the junior person to ignore the social distance between the two of them and switch to using plain forms in response.
While this is probably something that you are not accustomed to in your own social settings outside Japan, as you get more experience with the Japanese culture, it will become more natural for you. The important thing as a learner though is to be able to speak confidently using both plain and polite forms so that you are able to communicate naturally in either context.
For Ichidan verbs, we conjugate to the polite forms by first creating the masu-stem.
Once we have created the masu-stem, we can create all the basic polite conjugations using the following rules. This part of the process is exactly the same across all the different verb groups.
You can see examples of how these conjugations are formed below:
For Godan verbs ending in う create the masu-stem using the following rule:
Then create all the basic polite conjugations using the exact same rules as you did for Ichidan verbs.
For Godan verbs ending in く create the masu-stem using the following rule:
Then create all the basic polite conjugations using the normal rules.
For Godan verbs ending in ぐ create the masu-stem using the following rule:
For Godan verbs ending in す create the masu-stem using the following rule:
For Godan verbs ending in つ create the masu-stem using the following rule:
For Godan verbs ending in ぬ create the masu-stem using the following rule:
For Godan verbs ending in ぶ create the masu-stem using the following rule:
For Godan verbs ending in む create the masu-stem using the following rule:
For Godan verbs ending in る create the masu-stem using the following rule:
For 来る(kuru), you only need to remember the masu-stem:
Note that even though the hiragana character has changed from く to き in the masu-stem, the Kanji 来 stays the same, just the reading has changed.
For する(suru), it is simplest to just remember the masu-stem:
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