4.10 The ます form — present and past, affirmative and negative — Epoché
What you will be able to do Make all four cells of the polite verb: present, past, negative, negative past. Tell which of the three classes a verb belongs to, and form the ます stem for each. Know that the present tense covers the future, so there is no separate way to say "will". Recognise the two irregular verbs — there are only two in the whole language. Prerequisites : lesson 4.9 — the two classes of adjective, and the conjugation of an い adjective. Japanese verb morphology is famous for being regular, and the reputation is earned: two irregular verbs, three classes, and no agreement with the subject at all. There is no I go / he goes , no plural, no gender. What a Japanese verb does carry is tense, politeness, negation and a dozen other things, all stacked as endings on the end — and this lesson takes the first two cells of that stack. Four cells The polite present ends in ます , and the other three are formed from it mechanically. Cell Ending, with たべます as the example present / future ます — たべます , eats / will eat negative ません — たべません , does not eat / will not eat past ました — たべました , ate negative past ませんでした — たべませんでした , did not eat Four endings, no exceptions, every verb in the language. Learn this grid and you can say anything you can say in the past or the present, politely, about anybody, singular or plural. Note where the negation sits: ません is at the very end of the word, which is at the very end of the sentence. Lesson 4.1 made this point and here is the machinery behind it — the difference between "I eat sushi" and "I don't eat sushi" is three characters at the end of a sentence that is otherwise identical. The present covers the future There is no future tense. たべます means "eats" and also "will eat", and which one it is comes from context or from a time word. Japanese English まいあさパンをたべます。 I eat bread every morning. — habitual あしたパンをたべます。 I will eat bread tomorrow. — future あとででんわします。 [1] I will phone later. So Japanese divides time in two, not three: past and not-past . English does the same thing more often than English speakers notice — "the train leaves at six", "I fly to Tokyo tomorrow" — but English also has will available and reaches for it by default. In Japanese there is nothing to reach for, and adding a word meaning "will" is one of the commonest learner's constructions that a native speaker would never produce. This also means the reading text in lesson 8.1 was doing something you could not have noticed: every verb in it was in the present, and it described both a habitual routine and a specific day, with no grammatical difference between them at all. Three classes To get the ます form you need the stem, and how you get the stem depends on the class. There are three, and the third has two members. Class How to form ます Class 1 — plain form ends in る preceded by い or え Drop る , add ます . たべる → たべます ; みる → みます Class 2 — everything else Change the final u to i , add ます . のむ → のみます ; かう → かいます ; まつ → まちます Class 3 — two verbs する → します ; くる → きます Class 2 needs one remark, because the rule "change u to i " is doing something in kana that is invisible in romaji. のむ ends in む , and the i -column character of the same row is み . That is the 五十音図 ( gojūonzu ) from lesson 0.2 being used as a conjugation table — you move one square up the column. Every Japanese verb ending is built this way, which is why lesson 0.2 insisted that the grid was worth more than the twenty characters. Ends in Becomes う い — かう → かいます く き — かく → かきます す し — はなす → はなします つ ち — まつ → まちます ぬ ぶ む に び み — のむ → のみます る り — とる → とります ぐ ぎ — およぐ → およぎます Telling class 1 from class 2 Both classes can end in る , so the rule as stated is incomplete. The test: If it does not end in る , it is class 2. No exceptions. If it ends in る preceded by a , u or o — ある , つくる , とる — it is class 2. No exceptions. If it ends in る preceded by i or e , it is usually class 1 — たべる , みる — but there is a list of common exceptions that are class 2. So the only genuine uncertainty is the third case, and the exceptions worth learning now are these six: はいる (to enter), はしる (to run), しる (to know), かえる (to return home), きる (to cut), いる (to need). All six look like class 1 and are class 2, so はしる gives はしります and not はします . And one genuine ambiguity in the language itself: かえる meaning "to return" is class 2 ( かえります ) while かえる meaning "to change" is class 1 ( かえます ). Two different verbs that are spelled the same in kana, and the kanji separates them in phase 2. How English does it Two differences, and the second is the one that makes Japanese verbs easier than they look. No agreement. English verbs agree with the subject in the third person singular present — I eat , he eats — which is a small thing English learners get wrong for years. Japanese has nothing of the kind. たべます serves for I, you, he, she, it, we and they, and there is no plural. Combined with lesson 4.5, this means a Japanese verb often stands alone as a complete sentence. Two irregular verbs. English has about two hundred irregular verbs and every one has to be learned separately: go/went , be/was , bring/brought . Japanese has two, する and くる , and they are irregular in a mild and consistent way. Everything else follows from the class. And the thing English speakers have to add rather than drop: politeness is compulsory . The ます form is not a formal register you can choose; it is one of two forms, and speaking to a stranger without it is not casual but rude. The plain form exists and is lesson 4.16 and phase 2; for now, use ます with everyone. Forty verbs Verb, class, ます form Meaning たべる 1 → たべます to eat みる 1 → みます to see, to watch おきる 1 → おきます to get up ねる 1 → ねます to sleep でる 1 → でます to leave, to go out いれる 1 → いれます to put in; to make tea あける 1 → あけます to open しめる 1 → しめます to close みせる 1 → みせます to show おしえる 1 → おしえます to teach; to tell おぼえる 1 → おぼえます to learn by heart わすれる 1 → わすれます to forget きめる 1 → きめます to decide つかれる 1 → つかれます to get tired のむ 2 → のみます to drink よむ 2 → よみます to read かう 2 → かいます