A1
The て form
What the Japanese て form does, how it links sequential actions and forms requests, and why it is worth learning before it is fully explained.
The て form is not a tense. It is the form a verb takes when something follows it — another action, a request, a continuing state. Almost every grammar pattern beyond the basics starts here.
Joining actions in order
朝ご飯を食べて、学校に行きます。
Asagohan o tabete, gakkō ni ikimasu.
I eat breakfast and go to school.
Only the last verb carries the tense and the politeness. Everything before it sits in て form, which is why a long Japanese sentence stays unmarked until its final word.
起きて、シャワーを浴びて、出かけました。
Okite, shawā o abite, dekakemashita.
I got up, took a shower and went out.
Three actions, one past tense at the end.
Requests
て plus ください is the ordinary polite request.
ちょっと待ってください。
Chotto matte kudasai.
Please wait a moment.
How it is formed
From the ます stem, and the ending depends on the verb’s last syllable. The three irregular-looking groups are worth drilling as sounds rather than as rules.
| 食べます → 食べて | drop ます, add て |
| 書きます → 書いて | き → いて |
| 泳ぎます → 泳いで | ぎ → いで |
| 買います → 買って | い・ち・り → って |
| 飲みます → 飲んで | み・び・に → んで |
| 話します → 話して | し → して |
| します → して | irregular |
| 来ます → 来て | irregular |
| 行きます → 行って | irregular |
The んで and いで groups take で rather than て — the same voicing that turns –s into –z in English plurals, and equally automatic once heard enough.
行く is the exception worth flagging now rather than later. By the き → いて rule it would be 行いて; it is 行って. It is also one of the most common verbs in the language, so the exception is met long before the rule it breaks.
食べますて、行きます。
食べて、行きます。
The て form replaces ます; it does not attach to it. Only the final verb of the sentence keeps the polite ending.