Japanese Verb Groups Explained

Adjectives conjugate too, for the past and the negative, so this guide covers their two types as well: い-adjectives such as 高い (takai, high or expensive) and な-adjectives such as 静か (shizuka, quiet). Each of the 884 words in our Japanese conjugation tables has a page that names its type, and the label links to the matching section below.

The groups at a glance

That's 577 verbs and 307 adjectives. Godan verbs outnumber ichidan almost exactly two to one, 329 to 165, which matches the usual estimate for Japanese as a whole. The types are based on JMdict, the free dictionary that Jisho.org also uses.

Our list isn't ranked by frequency. It opens with the 160 words a beginner's course starts with, in textbook order: 8 irregular verbs, 26 ichidan, 49 godan, 51 い-adjectives and 26 な-adjectives. Then come the 74 する verbs, then other common words from JMdict. So even among the beginner words, godan verbs outnumber ichidan, 49 to 26.

Godan verbs (う-verbs)

Every godan verb ends in one of nine kana, all with the vowel u: う, く, ぐ, す, つ, ぬ, ぶ, む and る. The name tells you what happens next. 五段 (godan) means “five grades”: as the verb conjugates, its last kana moves through all five vowels. 書く runs 書か・書き・書く・書け・書こ (ka, ki, ku, ke, ko), which gives 書かない (doesn't write), 書きます (writes, polite), 書く, 書ける (can write) and 書こう (let's write).

The negative shows the pattern most clearly. Swap the final u-sound for the matching a-sound and add ない. 飲む (nomu, to drink) gives 飲まない, 待つ (matsu, to wait) gives 待たない, 話す (hanasu, to speak) gives 話さない and 帰る (kaeru, to go home) gives 帰らない. Verbs ending in う take わ instead, so 買う (kau, to buy) gives 買わない (kawanai).

The te-form is where godan verbs take some learning. Its ending changes sound to fit the verb's last kana, and the plain past follows it exactly, with た for て and だ for で: 書いて and 書いた, 飲んで and 飲んだ, 買って and 買った. Grammars call the っ, ん and い changes onbin (音便). The nine endings share five patterns:

The って row is the biggest, with 162 of our 329, because three endings share it. Watch the last two rows, which look alike: 書いて and 泳いで differ only by the voicing marks on で. And 死ぬ (to die) is the only common verb that ends in ぬ, and the only one in our list, so in practice the んで row belongs to む and ぶ.

行く (iku, to go) breaks the table. It ends in く, so you'd expect いて, but its te-form is 行って and its past 行った. Everything else is regular: 行かない, 行きます. That one exception is why our tables flag it as an irregular verb.

Ichidan verbs (る-verbs)

Ichidan verbs are the easy group. Drop the る and you have a stem that never changes, and every form adds its ending to that stem. 食べる gives 食べない, 食べます, 食べた, 食べて, 食べられる (can eat) and 食べよう (let's eat), all built on the same 食べ (tabe).

That's what 一段 (ichidan) means: “one grade”. A godan verb's last sound runs through five vowels, while an ichidan stem stays on one. There are no te-form sound changes to learn either. The て goes straight onto the stem: 見る (miru, to see) gives 見て, 起きる (okiru, to get up) gives 起きて and 寝る (neru, to sleep) gives 寝て.

Every one of our 165 ichidan verbs ends in -iru or -eru: 24 in -iru, such as 見る and 起きる, and 141 in -eru, such as 食べる and 寝る. That gives you a quick first check. A verb that ends in any kana but る is godan, or one of the irregulars. The same goes for a verb ending in -aru, -uru or -oru, apart from する and 来る. Only -iru and -eru verbs can be ichidan.

But the rule only works one way. Every ichidan verb ends in -iru or -eru, yet not every -iru or -eru verb is ichidan.

The -iru and -eru verbs that are godan

In our list, 20 godan verbs end in -iru or -eru, and in the dictionary they look exactly like ichidan verbs. Four of them are among the 160 beginner words: 知る (shiru, to know), 帰る, 入る (hairu, to enter) and 走る (hashiru, to run). The others include 切る (kiru), 限る (kagiru), 握る (nigiru), 減る (heru), 裏切る (uragiru), 振り返る (furikaeru) and 持ち帰る (mochikaeru).

How likely you are to meet one depends on the ending. Of the 38 -iru verbs in our list, 14 are godan. Of the 147 -eru verbs, only 6 are. So an -eru verb is nearly always ichidan, while an -iru verb is a much closer call.

Two pairs in our list show how little the dictionary form tells you. 着る (kiru, to wear) and 切る (kiru, to cut) sound the same, yet 着る is ichidan and 切る is godan: 着ない and 着て, but 切らない and 切って. 経る (heru, to pass) and 減る (heru, to decrease) split the same way: 経ない, but 減らない.

The test is the plain negative. A godan verb always has an a-sound before ない. An ichidan verb never does, because it drops る and keeps the i or e sound in front of it. So 帰らない (kaeranai) and 知らない (shiranai) mark 帰る and 知る as godan, while 食べない (tabenai) and 起きない (okinai) mark 食べる and 起きる as ichidan.

Some courses sort verbs by the sound before ます (masu) instead. That works for -eru verbs: 帰ります (kaerimasu) has an i-sound before ます, and 食べます (tabemasu) an e-sound. It can't sort -iru verbs. A godan verb always has an i-sound before ます, and an -iru ichidan verb's stem already ends in one (起き, oki), so the two kinds sound alike in the masu form. The negative has no such overlap, which makes it the safer test.

When you meet a new -iru or -eru verb, check its negative, or its type in a dictionary or on its page in our tables. It takes a few seconds and settles the group for good.

Irregular verbs

Textbooks count only two irregular verbs, する and 来る. They fit neither group, so you learn their forms one by one.

する gives しない, します, した and して. Its potential is a different verb altogether: できる (dekiru, can do).

来る keeps its kanji but changes its reading. 来 is read three ways: く (ku) in 来る and 来れば (kureba, if you come), き (ki) in 来ます (kimasu), 来た (kita) and 来て (kite), and こ (ko) in 来ない (konai), 来られる (korareru, can come) and the command 来い (koi). Our tables print the reading next to each of its forms for this reason.

Our tables mark seven more verbs as irregular, nine in all. Those seven are godan or ichidan verbs in every form but one or two, and JMdict files them as special cases of those two groups, not as irregulars. A teacher would call 行く a godan verb, and they'd be right. We flag the seven so their odd forms stand out:

• 行く, godan. Its te-form and past are 行って and 行った, not the いて pattern of 書く.
• ある (aru, to be, for things), godan. Its plain negative is ない on its own, and its past negative なかった. The rest is regular: あります, あった.
• くれる (kureru, to give me), ichidan. Its plain imperative, the command form, is くれ.
• くださる (kudasaru, to give, honorific) and いらっしゃる (irassharu, to come, go or be, honorific), godan. Before ます they use い where 帰る uses り: くださいます, いらっしゃいます. Their imperatives are ください and いらっしゃい. おっしゃる (ossharu, to say, honorific) works the same way.
• 問う (tou, to ask), godan. Its te-form and past keep the う, 問うて and 問うた, not 問って as 買う would lead you to expect. It's the only one of the nine outside the 160 beginner words.

For seven of the nine, that's the whole story: one or two forms to learn, and the rest follows the group.

する verbs

A する verb is a noun with する after it, and it conjugates exactly like する. 勉強する is the noun 勉強 (benkyou, study) plus する: 勉強しない, 勉強します, 勉強して, and in the potential 勉強できる (can study). Our list has 74 of them. Learn する and you know all 74.

Courses that number the groups in the style of Minna no Nihongo put these verbs in Group 3 with する itself. Japanese school grammar also puts する and the する verbs in one class. Both are right, because the conjugation is identical. Our tables give する verbs their own label only for clarity, so you can see at a glance which verbs are a noun plus する.

い-adjectives

An い-adjective ends in い, and that い is the part that changes. Drop it and add くない for the negative, かった for the past and くて for the te-form, which joins it to what comes next. 高い gives 高くない, 高かった and 高くて, and the adverb 高く. All 181 in our list end in い.

Only the last い changes. 大きい (ookii, big) has two, and keeps the first: 大きくない.

いい (ii, good) is the one to watch. It conjugates from よい (yoi), an older form of the same word, so every form starts with よ: よくない, よかった, よくて, よく. かっこいい (kakkoii, cool) does the same, though it isn't in our list.

な-adjectives

A な-adjective takes な before a noun, and the rest of the time it behaves like a noun. 静か is 静かな (shizuka na) before a noun and 静かだ (shizuka da) at the end of a plain sentence. Its other forms add to the word without changing it: 静かじゃない (shizuka ja nai) or 静かではない (shizuka de wa nai) for “not quiet”, 静かだった for “was quiet”, the te-form 静かで and the adverb 静かに. じゃない is a contraction of ではない. You'll hear じゃない more in speech, while ではない is mostly written.

The forms are easy. The hard part is spotting the type, because some な-adjectives end in い. In our list, 15 of the 126 have a reading that ends in い, such as きれい (kirei, pretty or clean), 嫌い (kirai, disliked) and 有名 (yuumei, famous). Only two of them, きれい and 嫌い, also end in い when written. The rest are written in kanji, as 有名 is, so the い never shows on its own.

They take な and じゃない like any other な-adjective: きれいな, きれいじゃない, 嫌いじゃない, 有名な, 有名じゃない. Treat きれい as an い-adjective and drop its い, and you get a form that doesn't exist. So learn きれい and 嫌い as な-adjectives the day you meet them. They're the two that look like the other type.

Godan, u-verb or Group 1? The names textbooks use

Textbooks agree on the groups but not on their names. Genki calls them u-verbs, ru-verbs and irregular verbs. Courses in the style of Minna no Nihongo, and the Japan Foundation's Irodori, number them Group 1, 2 and 3. Japanese school grammar uses the terms that godan and ichidan come from.

In all of these systems, the seven extra verbs our tables flag as irregular sit with the godan or ichidan verbs. Linguists use a fourth set of names: consonant-stem verbs for godan and vowel-stem verbs for ichidan. For adjectives, English guides say i-adjective and na-adjective, and school grammar says 形容詞 (keiyoushi) and 形容動詞 (keiyoudoushi). JMdict calls な-adjectives adjectival nouns, which fits how they behave.

In what order to learn them

1. する and 来る. They open the beginner course our list starts with, and every する verb follows する.
2. Ichidan verbs. One stem and no sound changes, so 食べる shows you the whole group.
3. Godan verbs, a row at a time. Learn the a-sound negative first, then the te-form one row of the table at a time, starting with って, which covers 162 of the 329.
4. The exceptions, as you meet them. Start with 知る, 帰る, 入る and 走る, then 行く's 行って and ある's ない. The honorifics can wait until you study polite speech.
5. Adjectives. い-adjectives first, with いい as the odd one, then な-adjectives, with きれい and 嫌い as the two that look like the wrong type.

To check yourself as you go, the Japanese verb conjugation quiz marks each form as you type it. To work on paper, the Japanese verb conjugation worksheet generator prints exercises for the words and forms you choose. Put 書く, 泳ぐ and 行く on one sheet, tick only the te-form, and 行って will stop looking like a typo.

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.