I’m still at the very early stage in N5 and I’m having trouble knowing when to use て or って in conjugations. Is there any trick to knowing which one applies, or do you need to learn it for each verb over time?
Examples:
E.T.は家に…帰っています…。(帰る)
バスは今大阪に…来ています…。(来る)
yes. te form of verbs rules are:
ichidan (ends with iru or eru-WITH EXCEPTIONS I’LL POST AT BOTTOM) = minus る + て (e.g:たべる to たべて)
godan: (excluding iru or eru APART from exceptions)
う、つ、る ending = minus う or つ or る + って (うつ to うって)
ぬ, ぶ ,む ending = minus ぬ or ぶ or む + んで (e.g:やすむ to やすんで)
く ending = minus く + いて (e.g: あるく to あるいて)
ぐ ending = minus ぐ + いで (e.g: およぐ to およいで)
す ending = minus す + して (e.g: はなす to はなして)
EXCEPTION VERBS THAT LOOK LIKE ICHIDAN BUT ARE GODAN INSTEAD SO CONJUGATE DIFFERENTLY (YOU DONT HAVE TO MEMORISE ALL THIS AT ONCE BUT WHEN YOU SEE AN ICHIDAN LOOKING VERB THAT CONJUGATES DIFFERENTLY TO THE RULE ITS AN EXCEPTION OUT OF THIS LIST) = Exceptions in top 200 (extremely popular words):
知る(shiru) - to know
入る(iru) - to get in
入る(hairu) - to enter
Exceptions in top 1000-2000:
走る(hashiru) - to run
切る(kiru) - to cut
参る(mairu) - to go (humble).
要る(iru) - to need
限る(kagiru) - to limit
Exceptions in top 2000-4000:
焦る(aseru) - to be impatient
帰る(kaeru) - to return home
握る(nigiru) - to grasp, to mold/press into shape.
減る(heru) - to diminish
Exceptions in top 4000-8000:
蹴る(keru) - to kick
散る(chiru) - to fall/scatter (not vertically, as leafs), it’s different from 落ちる to fall straight.
練る(neru) - to knead
Exceptions in top 8000-10000:
喋る(shyaberu) - to chatter
滑る(suberu) - to glide/slide
混じる(majiru) - to be mixed
照る(teru) - to shine
罵る(nonoshiru) - to curse/abuse(verbally)
耽る(fukeru) - to indulge in
Exceptions in top 10000-20000 (relatively rare):
茂る(shigeru) - to grow thickly
湿る(shimeru) - to become moist/wet
弄る(ijiru) - to fiddle
捻る(hineru) - to twist
寝そべる(nesoberu) - to sprawl
嘲る(azakeru) - to scoff/ridicule
齧る(kajiru) - to gnaw
毟る(mushiru) - to pluck
詰る(najiru) - to rebuke
Very rare:
軋る(kishiru) - to creak/squeak
誹る(soshiru) - to slander
せびる(sebiru) - to pester/demand money.
AS FOR する, IT CONJUGATES TO して AND くる’s te form isきて
these 2 verbs will often have different looking forms for potential form, passive etc. You will learn this as you progress on bunpro and they will be listed.
You will soon get onto the lessons for conjugating verbs on bunpro btw if you arent on them now already.
Need anymore help on conjugation then please DM me and I’ll get back to you! Don’t give up, good luck man!
I somehow momentarily forgot to mention irregular verbs when I wrote my comment, so just disregard it entirely.
@SoreWaMaichiru 's comment is clearer and higher quality anyway.
Excuse my mistake, wouldn’t want to confuse anyone.
SoreWaMaichiru’s post is very comprehensive, but if it’s a bit intimidating due to its length, here’s a more compact overview.
There are three types of verbs. う-verbs (also called godan verbs), る-verbs (also called ichidan verbs) and irregular verbs. To derive the て-form of a verb, you can follow the rule below. The conjugation depends on the final kana of the verb.
If it’s an う-verb:
Examples:
If it’s a る-verb, it’s easy:
Example:
The two irregular verbs are 行く (iku) and 来る (kuru). You’ll just have to remember that their て-forms are 行って (itte) and 来て (kite).
Here’s a tool that lets you practice conjugating て–forms: て-Form Practice
Here’s some extra reading: Te Form: Connecting words and clauses in Japanese
About the exception, at first I wanted to remember them, but to be honest just learn them when you meet them the first time. There are not that many any ways, so you’ll probably learn a new one every X days/weeks, and they will feel natural when you heard them a few them. 帰て will sounds super strange compared to 帰って, just by habit of hearing it like that.
Oh, and here’s a tip. Bunpro has a lot of features to help you learn and figure things out. One of the greater things, in my opinion, is that when you get a sentence where you have to conjugate the て-form (or a conjugation that requires the て-form), you can click the verb and Bunpro will tell you whether it’s an う-verb or a る-verb. See on the right side of this screenshot:
In this case it’s obvious that 働く (hataraku) is an う-verb because it ends in く, but when you get a verb that ends in る, you can check whether it’s an う-verb or a る-verb this way.
[Edit] Ah, I just got one. Here you can see that the verb ends in る, leaving you with no way of knowing whether it’s an う-verb or a る-verb unless you know this one by heart, but clicking the verb reveals that it’s an う-verb.
if none of the explanations are sticking there are a ton of u-verb and ru-verb conjugation tables online if you need a visualizer to help remind you of all the different rules (if you are learning at all from a textbook it should also have one). One thing to note is that these rules also pretty much map 1:1 over to a verb’s ta-form/its past tense conjugation.
Learn the rules shared by others here or in grammar books, but don’t stress too much about them.
As you consume more and more Japanese material, you’ll start to naturally get a feel for the correct te-forms. That’s how it worked for me, at least 80% of the time.
When reading, you can usually tell the verb by the Kanji in the stem, and when listening, context usually gives it away. When speaking, you won’t have time to think about grammar rules anyway. That’s why I think immersion is key—you’ll end up learning it naturally over time.
These grammar rules are mostly useful for passing tests.
There are many てけいの歌 to help remember the te-form.
Here are some :
Thanks for all the info! I did read up on this from Tae Kim’s website before starting on Bunpro, but for whatever reason a lot of what I read there just didn’t stick.
The two things that got me was forgetting (or not being taught?) Godan う, つ, る become って and so do all Godan exceptions.
@BreadmanNin
Great tip on Bunpro’s pop up too. I knew it was there but sometimes you just need someone to point out why you should be using it.
That was an interesting tip. Those didn’t really resonate with me so I searched up others and these ones really work for me. Others should also look for genres they like if they’re interest in learning through songs.
I remember being overwhelmed by this form when I started learning Japanese, even to the point of throwing my text book across the room. Don’t let it overwhelm you, review the table from time to time, and it will come naturally with practice.
