-U う Verbs

The –る verbs are by far the easiest to conjugate: you drop –る and add something else. Simple. –う verbs aren't that easy but almost. Typically you drop –う and add something else. The problem is that there might be a phonetic change (such as when は becomes ぱ, or た becomes だ) for some of the types. See the other chart for simple-English meanings of the conjunctions, this one just tries to keep the conjunction rules clear.

But first, there are some –う verbs that end in –る. We have to get them out of the way right now. Real –る verbs (where –る gets dropped) always end in –いる or –える. If you see one that ends:

then it's guaranteed not to be a – る verb. It's probably a –う verb. The exceptions are irregulars like ござる/ざいます, but effectively you can forget about those and assume anything ending with –ある, –うる, or –おるis an –う verb.

Verbs like いる ("exist" or "need") can be of either –う or –る type. In fact, いる is actually two different verbs. いる ("need") is an –う verb, its gerund is いって. The other one, いる ("exist") is a –る verb, its gerund is いて. If you hear one of these kinds of verbs, eg 入る (はいる, "to enter"), be sure to ask what the gerund (はいって) or past tense (はいった) is so you can remember its type.

So far I've only met three verbs ending in –える which were –う verbs rather than –る verbs. These are: ける/けって ("kick"), ヘル/へって ("decrease"), and へる/へって ("elapse"). Except for these いる/える verbs, every other type of verb is obvious by hearing only one form.

Including –う verbs which might happen to end in –る, these are all the types of –う verbs there are:

This should clarify what we mean by –う verbs, ie those verbs which end with some sort of C/V + う combination in their unconjugated form.

The –す verbs are the only ones which are well behaved, so –す will simply change to –さ, –し, –せ, and –そ in all cases with no odd behavior to remember. This isn't true for the rest of the –う verbs, which makes them harder to remember.

For the root or stem, replace –う with – い. This works straight across with no consonant changes in any of the conjgations.

Once –ます is attached this form becomes a new verb. All –ま す verbs conjugate like ordinary verbs ending in –す except that the negative is –ません rather than the expected –ましない and the past tense negative is –ませんでした (ie, –ません and the past tense of です, でした).

The –やすい construction mentioned above is a general way to attach adjectives to verbs, akin to the English construction "adjective to verb", as in "easy to understand", "hard to do", "quick to say", etc. Perhaps most commonly used in this manner are やすい and its opposite にくい, but there are others.

Replace –う with –いて, –んで, or –って for the gerund, "do X and" and for simple commands.

The way the gerundive form works as a polite command or request is that it is typically paired with a request verb such as なさる or 下さる (くださる). In fact, the request verb is often simply left unsaid, the listener being expected to know that the speaker is requesting or commanding something to be done. An example is "聞いて", a somewhat informal version of "聞いて下さい".

Replace –う with –いた for the past tense.

Okay, so it's not as simple as the description implies, but notice that this is almost exactly the same as the gerundive conjugation except that –て/で is now –た/だ.

Replace –う with –いたり for "do things like X". Or just add –り to the past tense.

Replace –う with –いたら for the conditional, "if". Or more simply, just suffix –ら to the past tense form.

Once again, this is the 'temporal' conditional. The 'atemporal' conditional is next.

Replace –う with –えば for the other conditional, "if".

Replace –う with –おう for the volitional, "let's X".

The volitional is also sometimes called the presumptive or the hortative. Look these big words up in a good English dictionary if you're curious. Personally I think the term 'presumptive' is a misnomer because this form doesn't really connote a presumption, but an intention. The term 'hortative' would be accurate if this conjugation was directed towards the listener, or to both the speaker and listener, but seems inappropriate when only the speaker is the intended subject. But I digress.

Replace –う with –え for the imperative, "do X dammit".

It can't be stressed enough that this conjugation is rude. Don't use it in polite conversation. Don't use it with strangers unless you're ready to defend yourself. However, you can safely use it in a monologue, or when talking about someone behind their back amongst your friends. An example of a monologue:

And here's a rude one:

Note that this can be easy to confuse with the gerund. There's a world of difference between saying "待て！" and saying "待って！". The former is a command, the latter is a request, although somewhat abrupt.

Replace –う with –あない for the negative, "doesn't X". This then becomes an adjective.

Notice that the negative form of はらう is はらわない. This is easily explained if you consider a missing 'w' in the –う form of the verb. Since Japanese has no 'wi', 'wu', 'we', or 'wo' the 'w' consonant does not appear, but it does exist in the negative with わ. In fact, at one point Japanese did actually have 'wi' and 'we' and these were used in the conjugation of verbs like はらう, although such sounds have since disappeared.

An aside: The 'wi' and 'we' sounds are still occasionally seen used in literature with the two ひらがな characters ゐ and ゑ, or ヰ and ヱ in カタカナ. Few Japanese people can actually pronounce them as such. The particle written を in ひらがな or ヲ in カタカナ is often denoted in ローマ字 as 'wo', and indeed it once was pronounced this way and filled this niche in conjugation. All of these have since fallen out of use in modern Japanese except for を which is still used as a particle. It probably kept its form instead of changing to お because it is easier to differentiate from the お– prefix.

Replace –う with –える for the potential, "can do X". This becomes a –る verb.

Replace –う with –あせる for the causative, "make someone do X". This becomes a –る verb.

As with はらわない, the はらわせる requires a わ instead of an あ.

Replace –う with –あれる for the passive, "X is done [by ...]". This becomes a –る verb.

This is essentially the same as the previous causative conjugation. Simply replace せ in the causative with れ to produce the passive.

Replace –う with –あせられる for the passive causative, "to be made to do X by someone". This becomes a –る verb.

This conjugation is actually just a combination of the causative and passive, ie the passive form of the –る verb formed by the causative of the root verb. But it's often listed as a distinct conjugation of the root verb in many grammar books and so is presented here separately.