Learn a verb without losing its root
Follow taberu from dictionary form to polite forms, then compare nomu and the irregular verb suru.
Back to the study guideKeep one word, track several skills
Start with taberu (食べる / たべる), “to eat.” Keep that dictionary form as your reference. Recognising a polite form, producing a negative form and reading the kanji are related skills, but success at one does not establish all the others.
When you review, name the requested contrast before answering: polite or plain, affirmative or negative, non-past or past. Japanese does not have a separate future-tense ending in these examples. A non-past form can refer to a habit or a future event depending on context.
| Form | Contrast | English guide |
|---|---|---|
| tabemasu （食べます / たべます） | Non-past, affirmative | Eat; will eat |
| tabemasen （食べません / たべません） | Non-past, negative | Do not eat; will not eat |
| tabemashita （食べました / たべました） | Past, affirmative | Ate |
| tabemasen deshita （食べませんでした / たべませんでした） | Past, negative | Did not eat |
Those glosses leave out a subject deliberately. The verb alone does not identify who ate. Politeness also does not make a past event more recent or more certain.
Check the verb group before extending a pattern
For this ichidan verb, remove the final ru (る) to get the stem tabe (食べ), then add the polite ending. Do not use “remove ru” as a universal rule: some verbs ending in ru are godan.
Compare nomu (飲む / のむ), “to drink”: its polite form is nomimasu (飲みます / のみます), not “nomumasu.” The irregular suru (する), “to do,” becomes shimasu (します). A dictionary’s part-of-speech information is useful because the spelling of the last character alone is insufficient.
Keep a small contrast notebook: dictionary form → polite non-past → polite past. If you miss the middle step, return to it before trying to memorise a longer chain of endings.
A short recall check
You want to say “I did not eat bread yesterday” politely. Which form of taberu supplies the past negative?
Show the worked answer
Tabemasen deshita (食べませんでした). One complete example is Kinou pan o tabemasen deshita. (昨日パンを食べませんでした。) The subject is understood from context. “Yesterday” supplies a time reference; the verb ending supplies the past-negative contrast.
In the app, Vocabulary focuses on dictionary words. Grammar contains endings and form practice; the word’s family/reference view helps you connect them. Choose the area that matches the skill you want to improve.
Practise word forms in GrammarGo beyond the table
This is a small worked example, not a complete conjugation dictionary. The Japan Foundation’s Irodori Starter Lesson 17 provides past-event listening and reading activities; Elementary 1 Lesson 15 includes polite/plain verb contrasts. Our examples are original; the course’s texts, audio and exercises are not reproduced here.