The Japanese Te-Form: Rules, Exceptions and What It's For

朝起きて、顔を洗って、コーヒーを飲んで、家を出ます。 (あさおきて、かおをあらって、コーヒーをのんで、いえをでます) I get up in the morning, wash my face, drink a coffee and leave the house. That sentence has four verbs, and three of them are in the て-form.

The て-form has no meaning of its own and no tense. It's a connecting shape. It joins a verb to the next verb, or to a helper like いる or ください, and a large part of beginner and intermediate grammar hangs off it. It's also the first conjugation where Japanese verbs stop being tidy, since the ending changes depending on the last kana of the dictionary form.

Godan verbs: five patterns by ending

Godan verbs (the group textbooks also call u-verbs or Group 1) are where the work is. Look at the final kana of the dictionary form and swap it as shown.

Nine endings, but only five outcomes. う, つ and る share って. む, ぶ and ぬ share んで. That leaves く, ぐ and す with one each. Notice that ぐ carries its voicing mark over to the ending, so 泳ぐ becomes 泳いで, not 泳いて. 死ぬ is the only ぬ verb in common use, so that row is really one word.

Plenty of classes teach these groups as a song, and it does help. What helps more is saying real verbs out loud until 飲んで sounds right and 飲みて sounds wrong.

Because several endings collapse into one, the て-form can't always be traced back to a single verb by sound. かって is 買って (from 買う, to buy), 勝って (from 勝つ, to win) or 飼って (from 飼う, to keep a pet). いって is 行って (from 行く, to go) or 言って (from 言う, to say). In writing the kanji tells them apart, and in speech the context does.

Ichidan verbs: drop る, add て

Ichidan verbs (ru-verbs, Group 2) are simple. Remove the final る and attach て. 食べる (たべる) becomes 食べて, 見る (みる) becomes 見て, 起きる (おきる) becomes 起きて.

The catch is knowing which verbs are ichidan. Every ichidan verb ends in る with an い or え sound before it, but a number of godan verbs look the same. These common ones take って:

切る and 着る (きる, to wear) show why you can't tell from the sound alone. They're both きる, but one gives 切って and the other 着て. You have to learn the group along with the verb.

The irregular verbs, and 行く

Japanese has two fully irregular verbs, and they're both short:

• する becomes して. That covers every する compound too: 勉強する (べんきょうする) becomes 勉強して.
• 来る (くる) becomes 来て (きて). The kanji stays and the vowel changes from く to き.

Then there's 行く (いく, to go). By the table it should be 行いて. It's 行って instead, and that's the one exception among く verbs you'll meet at this level. Since 行く is one of the most used verbs in the language, you'll absorb it quickly.

For completeness: a couple of formal, bookish verbs like 問う (とう, to question) become 問うて instead of 問って. You can read for years before running into one.

The past tense uses the same changes

If you already know the plain past (the た-form), you already know the て-form. Swap the final vowel: 書いた and 書いて, 読んだ and 読んで, 行った and 行って, した and して. Whichever of the two you learn first, the other comes free.

Adjectives, nouns and negatives

Verbs aren't the only words with a て-form.

• い-adjectives drop い and add くて: 安い (やすい) becomes 安くて, 大きい (おおきい) becomes 大きくて. いい is irregular and becomes よくて.
• な-adjectives and nouns take で: 静か (しずか) becomes 静かで, 学生 (がくせい) becomes 学生で.
• Negative verbs have two versions. 食べないで means "without eating" or, as a request, "please don't eat". 食べなくて gives a reason, as in "because I didn't eat".

This is how you string descriptions together: この店は安くておいしいです。 (このみせは やすくて おいしいです) This restaurant is cheap and tasty.

What the て-form is for

Here are the six uses you'll need first. In all of them the て-form itself stays the same, and the tense and politeness are decided by whatever comes at the end of the sentence.

Linking actions in order

Put verbs in the て-form one after another and they read as a sequence, like "and then" in English. Only the last verb shows the tense.

スーパーに行って、牛乳を買いました。 (スーパーにいって、ぎゅうにゅうをかいました) I went to the supermarket and bought milk.

The same link can express a cause, and context tells you which: 遅れてすみません。 (おくれてすみません) Sorry for being late. 来てくれてありがとう (thanks for coming), from our post on saying thank you in Japanese, is built the same way.

ている for ongoing actions and states

Add いる (or います) and you get an action in progress: 今、本を読んでいます。 (いま、ほんを よんでいます) I'm reading a book right now.

With verbs that describe a change, ている describes the state that results. 結婚しています (けっこんしています) means "is married", not "is getting married". 東京に住んでいます (とうきょうに すんでいます) is "I live in Tokyo". 知っています (しっています) is "I know". In casual speech the い drops out, so you'll hear 読んでる and 知ってる.

てください for requests

ここに名前を書いてください。 (ここに なまえを かいてください) Please write your name here. Among friends the ください is left off, and ちょっと待って (ちょっとまって) is simply "wait a second".

てもいい for permission

ても means "even if", so てもいい is literally "it's fine even if". As a question it asks permission: 写真を撮ってもいいですか。 (しゃしんを とってもいいですか) May I take a photo?

てはいけない for prohibition

ここでたばこを吸ってはいけません。 (ここで たばこを すってはいけません) You may not smoke here. This is the phrasing of rules and signs. Spoken Japanese usually contracts ては to ちゃ and では to じゃ, with だめ at the end: 入っちゃだめ (はいっちゃだめ), "you can't go in".

てから for "after doing"

手を洗ってから食べます。 (てを あらってから たべます) I eat after washing my hands. Plain て already implies sequence. てから stresses that the first action has to come first.

Where it goes next

Once the form is automatic, a long list of grammar opens up with no new conjugation to learn: てみる (try doing), てしまう (do completely, or do by accident), ておく (do in advance), and the giving and receiving verbs in てあげる, てくれる and てもらう. They all attach to the same shape. If particles are still shaky, our guide to Japanese particles pairs well with this, since most of the examples above lean on を, に and で.

Questions people ask about the て-form