Scenes where verb conjugation is used
動詞の活用が使われる場面

When you first start studying Japanese, learning verbs seems very easy. Verbs in the present, past, affirmative, and negative forms are the same up to the “のみます nomimas”.

However, various forms such as “drink,” “not drink,” and “drank” appear, and only up to “のむ nom” (or up to “の no” in the case of “drank”) is the invariant part of the verb kept.

There are not many verb variants, if only the basic ones. Among them, the following four forms are the most basic. Let’s take “drink” and “eat” as examples.

(1) Dictionary form (e.g., “drink” and “eat”) 辞書形（例「飲む」「食べる」）
(2) Masu form (e.g., “drink”, “eat”) マス形（例「飲みます」「食べます」）
(3) Nai form (e.g., “do not drink”, “do not eat”) ナイ形（例「飲まない」「食べない」）
(4) Te form (e.g. “drink”, “eat”) テ形（例「飲んで」「食べて」）