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Japanese verb conjugation practice

Pick a verb, produce the form. 2,766 real JLPT words, 22 forms, and the rule shown every single time — right or wrong.

1

You see a verb

Plus the form to make. The verb class is shown, so you always know what you are working with.

2

You type or tap

Romaji becomes kana as you type — kaite → かいて. No Japanese keyboard needed.

3

You see the rule

Every answer explains itself. Anything you miss comes back sooner until it sticks.

Choose a drill

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Which words you will be given. Start where you are — you can change this any time.

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Forms to drill

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Question 1
Polite
Type kakimasu or かきます — both count. Press Enter to answer.
or press Enter
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Verb1/5
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Conjugation reference

早見表

A sample of real N5 words from the same set the drills use, one group per class. Notice 帰る and 食べる: both end in る, and they behave completely differently. That is the whole reason this trainer reads the verb class from dictionary data instead of guessing from the spelling.

WordMeaningますない
会うあうto meet, to see会います会わない会って会った
開くあくto open, to become open開きます開かない開いて開いた
遊ぶあそぶto play; to spend time pleasantly; to hang out遊びます遊ばない遊んで遊んだ
洗うあらうto wash洗います洗わない洗って洗った
青いあおいblue青くない青くて青かった
赤いあかいred赤くない赤くて赤かった
明るいあかるいbright (in reference to personality or weather); cheerful明るくない明るくて明るかった
暖かいあたたかいwarm暖かくない暖かくて暖かかった
開けるあけるto open開けます開けない開けて開けた
上げるあげるto raise, to lift上げます上げない上げて上げた
浴びるあびるto bathe, to shower浴びます浴びない浴びて浴びた
入れるいれるto put in入れます入れない入れて入れた
一緒するいっしょするtogether一緒します一緒しない一緒して一緒した
意味するいみするmeaning, significance意味します意味しない意味して意味した
買い物するかいものするshopping買い物します買い物しない買い物して買い物した
結婚するけっこん (する)するmarriage結婚します結婚しない結婚して結婚した

How Japanese conjugation actually works

活用とは

Japanese conjugation looks enormous and is actually small. There are two regular classes, two irregular verbs, and one adjective pattern. Everything else — polite, past, negative, potential, passive, causative, conditional — is a suffix applied to a base you already know how to find. Once the bases are automatic, the twenty-two forms stop being twenty-two things to memorise and become one thing applied twenty-two ways.

The two regular classes

一段 (ichidan) verbs are the easy ones. Drop and add the ending: 食べる → 食べない, 食べます, 食べて, 食べられる. Nothing else changes, ever.

五段 (godan) verbs move the final kana through the five vowel bases. 書く becomes 書ない, 書ます, 書る, 書う — か・き・く・け・こ, the か column of the kana chart. Every godan verb does this in its own row: 読む uses ま・み・む・め・も, 話す uses さ・し・す・せ・そ.

The trap is that you cannot tell the classes apart from the spelling. 帰る, 入る, 走る, 切る and 知る all end in る and are all godan. 食べる, 見る and 起きる end in る and are ichidan. There is no reliable rule — which is why this trainer takes the class from UniDic dictionary data for every one of its 2,766 words rather than inferring it, and why the wrong answers it offers you are usually the word conjugated as if it were the other class. That is the mistake you are actually at risk of making.

The irregulars are two verbs

する and 来る. That is the complete list. する is everywhere because any noun marked as サ変可能 becomes a verb with it — 勉強する, 練習する, 電話する — so learning one pattern unlocks thousands of verbs. 来る is harder than it looks because the kanji never changes while the reading moves through こ, き and く: 来ない is こない, 来ます is きます, 来れば is くれば. This is why the reading is always shown alongside the answer here.

A few otherwise-regular verbs break one form each. 行く is godan but its て-form is 行って, not 行いて. ある is godan but its negative is simply ない. くださる, いらっしゃる, おっしゃる and なさる take い instead of り, which is where ください comes from. All of them are in the Irregular Gauntlet.

Why the て-form deserves its own drill

The て-form is the gateway to most of intermediate Japanese — requests, progressive, permission, prohibition, sequencing, and a long list of grammar patterns that all attach to it. It is also the form with the most sound changes: く→いて, ぐ→いで, む・ぶ・ぬ→んで, つ・る・う→って, す→して. Learners who are slow at て are slow at everything built on it, which is why it gets its own ladder here rather than being one form among many.

What to do with this

Short sessions, often. Conjugation is motor memory more than knowledge: you already understand the rule long before you can apply it at speed, and the gap between the two only closes with repetition under mild time pressure. Ten minutes daily beats an hour on Sunday. Use Review before anything else — it serves you only the forms you have already got wrong, which is where nearly all of your remaining gains are.

Questions

質問
Do I need a Japanese keyboard?

No. Type romaji and it converts as you go — kaite becomes かいて, tabemasen becomes たべません. If you do have a Japanese IME you can use it, and if you would rather not type at all, switch to multiple choice in the setup panel and tap instead.

What counts as a correct answer?

Either the written form or the reading. For 書く in the て-form, both 書いて and かいて are accepted, as is the romaji kaite. You are being tested on the conjugation, not on whether you chose to write the kanji.

Which forms are covered?

Twenty-two for verbs: ます, ません, ました, ませんでした, ましょう, ない, た, なかった, て, なくて, ている, たい, ながら, the masu-stem, potential, volitional, imperative, ば, たら, passive, causative and causative-passive. Adjectives have a ten-form set of their own including the adverbial and before-a-noun forms. Every form can be switched on or off individually.

Where do the words come from?

From Nihoner's own vocabulary set — 2,766 verbs and adjectives, each tagged with the JLPT level at which it is normally introduced, each matched to its UniDic conjugation class. Nothing is invented and nothing is scraped.

Is it free?

Completely, and no account is needed. A free account saves your XP, day streak and spaced-repetition schedule across devices instead of keeping them in one browser's storage.

How is the review schedule decided?

Each word-and-form pair sits in one of six boxes. Get it right and it moves up a box and comes back later; get it wrong and it drops to the bottom and comes back tomorrow. The intervals are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 days. It is deliberately simple — the value is in reviewing the right items, not in the arithmetic.

— part of Nihoner, the Japanese learning platform.