Verb Stems

Verb stems are important to learn because they're used in a variety of conjugations, including the common ます form. I know I've mentioned them before in a past post, but they deserve their own post because they're so useful. Thankfully, they're quite simple.

In the case of ichidan verbs, I simply drop the る to get the stem. For godan verbs, I must change the final う sound to the い equivalent. Examples will make this more clear.

食べる --> 食べ
to eat

行く --> 行き
to go

歩く --> 歩き
to walk

死ぬ --> 死に
to die

分かる --> 分かり
to understand

する --> し
to do

来る --> き
to come

The final two are the standard exception verbs, which I previously mentioned as having unique conjugations for almost everything.

Credit goes to Tae Kim's lesson seen here.