“~te” Form
So far we have learned how to convert to “~masu” & “~katta” form. Today I will show you how to convert into “~te” form. “Te” is use in connection with the following words :
~te can be used for combination of 2 adjectives. Example : Yasui Desu. Oishii Desu. (Cheap. Delicious) – Yasukute oishii desu. Other usage will be :
Tabete kudasai (Please Eat) – Requesting
Tabete imasu (Eating) – Similar to the “~ing” in English
Tabete arimasu (I have been eaten) – Something has been done
Kaite okimasu (I have wrote it) – Do something in advance / in preparation
Tabete mimasu (Eat and see) – Trying something and see how is the result
Tabete shimaimashita (I have completely eaten) – To imply something which is completed
Tabete ikimasu (Go and eat) – Saying something that is going to happen
Tabete hoshii (Want to eat) – Wanted to do something
I will cover each usage above later after this lesson on how to convert normal form to ~te form
| Normal Form Kau (Buy) Kaku (Write) Oyogu (Swim) Hanasu (Talk) Matsu (Wait) Hakobu (Carry) Nomu (Drink) Uru (Sell) Special Words |
~masu form Kaimasu Kakimasu Oyogimasu Hanashimasu Machimasu Hakobimasu Nomimasu Urimasu Special Words |
~te form Ka Ka Oyo Hana Ma Hako No U Special Words |
It is a little confuse for the conversion. With a little more practise, you will be able to master it. Later, I will cover the lesson on how to combine 2 adjectives using ~te form. Stay Tune!!!
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January 22nd, 2006 at 8:47 pm
got your blog off blogexplosion, I’m loving it! I linked you up. I’m taking up basic japanese class in school and your entries are of great help!
January 22nd, 2006 at 8:53 pm
Pleasure Aaron. Appreciate for the link in your blog. Hope you can learn some extra here.
January 23rd, 2006 at 12:07 pm
very nice blog
February 7th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Tony, is there a rule for knowing if the ~te form of a verb ends in “de” instead of the “te”?
thank you so much in advance!
February 7th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Hi Colin,
Yes, there is. Verbs end with “gu”, “bu”, “mu” will be “de” in the conversion.
gu – ide (oyogu – oyoide)
bu – nde (yobu – yonde)
mu – nde (tanomu – tanonde)
Hope this help
February 8th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Colin, sorry for mentioning your name as Susan. This mistake was made because I was writing a reply to Susan in another post and mistakenly type her name in here.
July 5th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Sorry, but some stuff you said is incorrect, misleading or incomplete.
te iru (imasu) is not just ~ing. te can carry a feeling of completion. ~te iru can express an ongoing state/action, or a resultant state. “to be V-ing” “have V-ed” (The latter not talking about experiences, but saying you exist in the resultant state)
kekkon shite iru can mean “I am marrying” (in the church right now) or “I am married” (I married an exist in the resultant state.
te aru…saying something “has been done” is not incorrect but misleading. This is used with TRANSITIVE verbs. It impies that there was a “doer” of the action, while ~te iru does not.
Example
Mado ga aite iru – The window is open
“it’s just open, not saying anyone did it, just merely describing the window”
Mado ga akete aru – The window is open [implying that someone opened it]
Aite is te form of Aku – to be(come) open, to open (intransitive)
Akete is te form of akeru – to open (transitive)
te miru – literally means “do and see how turns out” but is often translated to “try”
te iku does not mean go and do something. It can mean “do something and then go” or in a more abstract, harder to explain usage, the focus of the action is going into the future.
Go and eat = tabe ni iku.
te shimatta also carries a negative nuance as in something that wasn’t desired. Like say you forget to do your homework, or your goldfish died.
te hoshii – is not want to do something, that is the ~tai form. -te hoshii is when [you] want [someone else] to do something.
Other usages of -te form.
To express a chain of actions in sequential order.
To express a weak reason/cause.
to express a method/means.
To show a special kind of emphasis.
July 5th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Hi John,
Thanks for your detail explanation. Really appreciate it.
Sorry that I am not able to explain as detail as what you have explained.
September 17th, 2007 at 8:18 am
thanks .
but I have one question .!
what different between kau and Kaimasu and Katte and Meaning is buy.. !!
and when I can Use this verbs ?
thanks again
September 17th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Hi Memo,
Kau = Buy (Normal Form – Friend’s Talk)
Kaimasu – Buy (Same as “Kau” but this is Polite Form)
Katte Iru (Buying) ; Katte Imasu (Polite Form)
Hope this help
March 5th, 2008 at 7:48 am
I noticed that you had “yobu” converted to “yonde” but isn’t yonde the te form of yomimasu who’s dictionary form is yomu not “yobu” if you could clarify that would be great.
March 5th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Hi Greg,
Yes, Yobu & Yomu used ~nde when converting to “te” form. That means “Yonde” can be represented by “Yomu (Read)” or “Yobu (Call)”
Hope this help. Thanks
September 16th, 2008 at 6:23 am
For the te form, particularly the group 1 verbs (the last three are group 3) I teach my class a song to the tune “Oh my Darling Clementime”
i, chi, ri – tte
bi, mi, ni – nde
ki – ite
gi – ide
shimasu – shite
kimasu – kite
ikimasu – itte
September 16th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Great Kate
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:18 pm
hey please can someone tell me some source of japanesse grammar? I need it for my presentation I need some parafrasion from some book or something just tell me the name of the book please 😀
August 11th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
the book is “hai” i found it in a library in adelaide city.
August 11th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
it should be “Hon”. Something is wrong with the book.
August 11th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
there might b two tht bookm got me through yr 9
lol
January 29th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
one small mistake: ‘kiru’ becomes ‘kitte’ in te form not ‘kite’ (kuru becomes ‘kite’).
January 30th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Hi Luke,
The “te” form for “kiru” is “kite” not “kitte”.
“Kuru” is also “kite”
January 30th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
Thanks for that, I have been saying it wrong then. That is just what my dictionary says it is and also I thought that the general ‘rule’ for putting verbs that end in -ru into -te form was to replace with -tte. Maybe I should get a new dictionary.
January 30th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Hi Luke,
Kiru is special similar to “miru”. “te” is used.
The rest that end with “ru” will be “tte”
January 30th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Oh yeah, it is an ichidan verb. Sorry for that but it has been a little while since I last studied any Japanese.
October 20th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
@Luke, @Tony,
Kiru has two different meanings. Kiru, the Group 2, verb has a te form Kite. This Kiru means ‘to wear’. Kimono is the wearable thing, the dress.
The other Kiru is a group 1 verb meaning to cut. This has a te form kitte.
Verbs with iru and eru endings have this potential for confusion. Depending on the group they belong, they conjugate differently.
October 28th, 2010 at 11:13 am
Can someone explain to me why these verbs are changed from the regular (normal) form to these alternate forms (te,masu). Is it as simple as that is just what happens and I learn the structure? Thank you.
October 28th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Hi…
Im taking JLPT this dec. but im still weak in Te form. can anyone help me to simplified the Te form? i dont really understand with Group 1, group 2 and group 3.
Thanks a lot!!!
October 28th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
>> Kalen
You mean “why change to “~temasu” or just “te”?
>> Florence
This need a little practice. You just have to memorize the rules like “u to tte”, “ku to ite”, etc. Just go through the list in this page.
March 29th, 2011 at 4:39 am
The site is awesome. Thanks alot. However, can you please explain the difference between saseru and sasete? These two words is confusing and I am not sure wen to use them since I read that both meaning is the same.
March 13th, 2012 at 6:41 am
良ければ来てほしい
Does this mean “it would be good if you would come”? I hear -te hoshii means “I want you to…”, but for this sentence it makes no sense.. Anyone?
Thanks!
March 13th, 2012 at 5:45 pm
Hi Matias,
Your translation can be used as well. The word does mean “want to or wish to” and translated as follow:
If it is fine with you, I wish you could come.
Hope this help