Potential Verb Forms

明けましておめでとう！ We've reached the new year, and in 2017 I want to study Japanese harder than ever before. My goal for 2017 is to get through Genki II and Tobira at a minimum, which would put me at roughly N3 level of Japanese. I also really want to improve my speaking and listening skills, something I'm working on with Yuta's Japanese course.

That's a different matter though, and it's time to do my first lesson from Genki II, which involves the potential form of verbs. The potential form simply means the "can do" or "has the ability to do" form of the verb. Here are the rules for creating the potential form of verbs:

Ichidan Verbs

• Drop the final る and add られる
• 見る -> 見られる
• 忘れる -> 忘れられる

Godan Verbs

• Change the final う sound to the え equivalent and add る
•  行く -> 行ける
• 待つ -> 待てる

Exceptions

• 来る -> こられる
• する -> できる

The conjugation for ichidan verbs is rather long with the られる added on to the end. For this reason, it's common to simply add れる instead, without the ら. I would imagine this is especially common in the spoken language, leaving られる reserved for more formal, written settings. So without the ら, the conjugations look like:

見る -> 見れる
分ける -> 分けれる
来る -> これる

Since both ichidan and godan verbs end in える here, they're conjugated as typical ichidan verbs. It's a nice luxury.

In the potential form, verbs that use the を particle can take either を or が in sentences. The verb できる is an exception, though. It almost always uses the が particle, and using を with it can sound wrong or substandard. Thankfully, verbs that use other particles (like に) require no change in the potential form.

病んでるから学校に行けないんだよ。
I couldn't go to school because I was sick.

彼は教科書を見つけれないんでしょ。
He probably can't find his textbook.

すみません、英語を話せますか。
Excuse me, can you speak English?

明日リーさんにこの映画を返せる。
I can return this movie to Lee-san tomorrow.

毎日家で仕事ができるよ。
I can do work at home every day.

今夜ライトはパーティーにこれるだよね！
Laito can come to the party tonight!