A1
ます — the polite verb ending
How the Japanese ます form works, what it does and does not tell you about tense, and how it relates to the plain dictionary form.
Every Japanese verb has a plain form — the one in the dictionary — and a polite form ending in ます. Same meaning, different register.
食べます。
Tabemasu.
I eat.
毎日走ります。
Mainichi hashirimasu.
I run every day.
English carries politeness in word choice and hedging — could you possibly. In Japanese it is grammar: the verb itself is marked, and there is no neutral option. Every sentence you finish commits to a register.
Present and future are one form
ます covers both what you do habitually and what you will do. Japanese does not have a future tense; time comes from context or from a word like 明日.
明日行きます。
Ashita ikimasu.
I’ll go tomorrow.
毎朝コーヒーを飲みます。
Maiasa kōhī o nomimasu.
I drink coffee every morning.
Same ending, two English tenses.
The four forms
Once you have ます, three more come from it by swapping the ending — which is the whole logic of Japanese conjugation.
| 行きます | go |
| 行きません | don’t go |
| 行きました | went |
| 行きませんでした | didn’t go |
Nothing is added in front of the verb. See negation and past tense.
Which form to learn first
Textbooks start with ます because it is safe with strangers. The dictionary form matters just as much — it is what you need to build longer sentences, and it is what you will hear among friends — but starting polite means never being rude by accident.
寒います。
寒いです。
ます is for verbs. An adjective is made polite with です, which adds the register without touching the word — see adjectives.