Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 2

66 1. Is it possible to determine which group a verb belongs to by just looking at the ~ masu form? Yes and No. Yes, because the ~emasu ending indicates that the verb is in Group 2. No, because verbs with the ~ imasu ending can be either in Group 1 or Group 2. This is because the stem of Group 1 verbs and some Group 2 verb both end in ~ i, a nd therefore have the ~imasu ending in their formal forms. irimasu  ir-u Group 1 ‘need’ imasu  i-ru Group 2 ‘be’ 2. Is it possible to determine which group a verb belongs to by just looking at the plain form? Yes and No. Yes, because verbs that have endings other than ~eru and ~iru are in Group 1 (except for the few irregular verbs below). No, because verbs with the ~ eru or ~iru ending can be either Group 1 or 2. Iru , for example, can be either in Group 1 or Group 2 depending on where the cut is. If it is / i-ru / , then it’s group 2, meaning ‘be’, and if it is / ir-u / , then it’s in Group 1, meaning ‘need’. Similarly, kaeru can be either in Group 1 or Group2 depending on where the cut is. If it is / kae-ru /, then it’s in Group 2, meaning ‘change’ and if it is / kaer-u / then it’s in Group 1 meaning ‘go home’. kaemasu  kae-ru (kae-ru) Group 2 ‘change’ kaerimasu  kaer-u (kaer-u) Group 1 ‘go home’ Therefore, it’s important to check other forms to determine whether a verb belongs to Group 1 or Group 2 if the verb has these endings. Group 3: Irregular Verbs There are only four irregular verbs in Japanese. Formal form Plain form kimasu  kuru ‘come’ shimasu  suru ‘do’ arimasu  aru ‘be’ ikimasu  iku ‘go’ The reason why arimasu and ikimasu are in this group and not in Group 1 will be explained when we discuss the plain negative forms and plain past forms. Group 4: Special Polite Verbs This group has only five verbs, all of which have polite meanings. We have seen the first four so far.