Free Japanese Verb and Adjective Conjugation Worksheets

How the Japanese conjugation worksheet generator works

Start with the words. The list holds 884 Japanese words: 577 verbs and 307 adjectives. It opens with the words a beginner's course starts with, in roughly textbook order (する, 来る, 行く, ある, いる, 食べる, 飲む), then carries on with other common words by how often they appear, using JMdict's frequency bands, which come from newspapers. Each word has its English meaning, and you can search the list by kanji, kana, romaji or English. Filters narrow it to る-verbs (ichidan), う-verbs (godan), the irregular verbs, noun + する verbs such as 勉強する, い-adjectives or な-adjectives, or to verbs or adjectives only. A worksheet holds up to 30 words. Then tick the forms you want, and choose the kind of sheet on the preview.

Fill-in boxes, a quick quiz or a conjugation chart

The fill-in worksheet gives every word a box for each form, with lines for plain, plain negative, polite and polite negative where the form has them. The answer key prints on separate pages, so you can hand out the worksheet and keep the key. The quick quiz asks for one form per line, in shuffled order, with its own answer key. The conjugation chart prints every form filled in, which gives you a Japanese verb conjugation chart to print or save as PDF and keep in a binder. Tick only the te-form and you have a te-form chart for the verbs your class is learning. To look up a single word instead, the Japanese conjugation tables give each of the 884 words a page of its own, with every form plain and polite.

The 14 forms, plain and polite

The forms come in five groups. The basic forms are the present, the past, the te-form and the progressive with -te iru. Next come wanting, inviting and telling: want to with -tai, the volitional, and the imperative and requests. Then can and if: the potential, the -ba conditional and the -tara conditional. Then the passive, the causative and the causative passive. The last group is the adverb, for adjectives: 高く, 静かに. Each form comes in plain, plain negative, polite and polite negative where it has them. The te-form has a plain and a negative (食べて, 食べないで), the volitional a plain and a polite (食べよう, 食べましょう), and the two conditionals a plain and a negative. The imperative row holds the plain command, the plain negative 食べるな, the polite request 食べてください and the polite negative request 食べないでください.

Japanese adjective conjugation: い and な

Adjectives get only the forms that apply to them: the present, the past, the te-form, both conditionals and the adverb. The verb-only forms, such as the potential and the passive, are left off their worksheets rather than shown as empty boxes. An い-adjective changes its ending: 高い, 高くない, 高かった, 高くて, 高ければ, 高く. いい is the one to watch, because it conjugates from よい, so its negative is よくない and its past よかった. A な-adjective adds to the word instead: 静かだ, 静かです, 静かでした, 静かで, 静かなら, 静かに. Its plain negative has two versions, 静かじゃない and 静かではない, and the sheets print both. Pick a few of each kind and the chart works as a Japanese adjective conjugation table for the class.

Kanji, kana and readings

Forms print in kanji where the word has kanji, and the word's heading shows its reading, as in 食べる (たべる). Words usually written in kana print in kana, such as わかる and いる, so students practice them the way they'll see them. 来る prints a reading next to every form, because 来 is read three ways: 来ない (こない), 来ます (きます), 来る (くる). There is no romaji on the sheets. If your students can't read kanji yet, the kanji to hiragana converter adds furigana to any Japanese text, and the hiragana worksheets cover the kana first.

How accurate are the forms?

The forms are built by the standard rules, the ones textbooks teach for each class of verb and adjective, and the irregular ones are written out: する, 来る, 行く with 行って, ある with its negative ない, くれる with くれ, くださる with ください and くださいます, and いい with よくない. We tested the results against textbook forms for every class. One choice is worth knowing about. For the causative passive of an う-verb, the sheets print the short form textbooks teach, 書かされる, rather than the long 書かせられる. Verbs ending in す take only the long form, so 話す prints 話させられる.

Free worksheets for teachers and classrooms

Every sheet prints without a watermark, and you need no account to make one. Teachers may photocopy them for their classes. Build one worksheet per unit, or a te-form sheet the week before a test. Students can also practice on their own with the Japanese verb conjugation quiz, which marks each typed form right or wrong at once and turns romaji into hiragana as they type. For the kanji themselves, the kanji worksheet generator prints stroke order practice. If you teach another language too, the same generator makes Spanish, German, French and Russian verb conjugation worksheets.

Frequently asked questions

Licenses and credits

Verbs, adjectives and their meanings come from JMdict, the property of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, used in conformance with the Group's licence. The forms are built by the standard rules, with the irregular ones written out.