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The "Te" Form.

When I think of it, I get ill. It's frightening at times, to be quite honest, and yet it's the key to so much of the grammar in Japanese. If you can grasp the "te" form and use it with proficiency, then the rest of the language is a piece of cake (or so it seems).

So let's look at the basics of the te form, shall we?


Please show me that watch.

Irregular Verbs:
Drop ～ます　from the polite form and add　て.



る -verbs


う - verbs
The て -forms of う-verbs differ depending on the verb ending.



くいぐい pattern
If a dictionary form ends in く (or ぐ)
the て-form has いて (or いで).



する pattern
If a dictionary form ends in す,
the て-form has して.



むんぶん pattern
If a dictionary form ends in む or ぶ,
the て-form has んで.



るうつ pattern
If a dictionary form ends in る, う, or
つ, the て-form has って.

Maybe if you had PICTURES instead of fonts, we wouldn't see little fecking blocks!

You're the doof trying to teach us with identical blocks stressed

You need to add in ぬ in this pattern even if there is only one verb that ends in ぬ.
My friends and I lovingly call it the むぬぶ pattern.
のむ(to drink)--のんで (for those without Japanese text support, nomu-->nonde)
あそぶ(to play)--あそんで (asobu-->asonde)
しぬ(to die)--しんで(shinu-->shinde)

Oops wink

There's a te form song that was created by a teacher in Hawaii. It goes to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star too. It's a lot easier to remember te form than straight up memorizing it if you learn the song too.

うつる って
むぬぶ んで
く いて ぐ いで す して
Group 2 verbs are so easy. Just drop る and add the て
Group 3 verbs are only 3
くる きて
する して
いく いって

wait a minute, i think you forgot to put what the te form is used for...

'te' form verb + imasu = (verb)ing
* Example: Bob-san wa poo wo tabete imasu. = Bob is eating poo.

'te' form verb + mo ii desu ka = may I (verb)
* Example: Otearai ni itte mo ii desu ka? = May I go to the bathroom?

'te' form verb + kudasai = Can you please (verb)
* Example: Kore wo kiite kudasai. = Can you please listen to this?


p.s. changed the title to get rid of the "& quot te & quot" that was showing up.

Totally saw something that this is missing! The -te form for desu!

The -te form for desu is easy, it's "de"! This is the same "de" that's used after -na adjectives when you list more than one. Also, it's used a lot for connecting sentances and phrases, which NagaiKami didn't go into, and I feel like I should since we're on the subject.

In it's simplest form, the -te form of a verb/adjective can be used at the end of a sentance as "and" to connect that sentance with the next one.

"And" Usage
For example:
I like cats. I also like dogs.

To say these as two sentances, they're simply "Neko ga suki desu. Inu mo suki desu."
To combine them, change the first verb (the "desu" in the cat sentence) to it's -te form ("de"), and say as one sentance:
"Neko ga suki de, inu mo suki desu."
This makes the sentance into "I like cats, and I also like dogs.


BE CAREFUL WITH TENSE!
With the -te form, the tense is shown in the LAST verb. So saying something like "I ate cake, and I drank milk) the last verb shows the tense.
"Keeki wo tabete, gyuunyuu wo nomimashita.



You can even do double -te forms to connect -ing verbs!
For example, "I'm reading a book and doing homework."
Two -ing verbs, right? "reading" and "doing", which are the verbs "yomu" and "suru" respectively.

First things first, let's split this into basic sentences, "I read a book" and "I do homework." This gives us Watashi ha hon wo yomu and Shukudai wo shimasu.
Let's put the verbs into the gerund (-ing) form, which is "-te imasu".
That gives us "yonde imasu" and "shite imasu" for each verb.

Now, we have two sentances: "Watashi ha hon wo yonde imasu." and "Shukudai wo shite imasu."
To combine these, let's look at just the first sentence of "Watashi ha hon wo yonde imasu".
"yonde" is already in the -te form, but we need to put "imasu" into the -te form to connect the sentances. That's easy. "imasu" turns to "ite" in the -te form. That gives us yonde ite for our verb.

Now let's combine the sentances!
Watashi ha hon wo yonde ite, shukudai wo shite imasu.

There you go! Now you have "I'm reading a book and doing homework" in Japanese! To make it past tense, simply change "shite imasu" to "shite imashita" and you have "I was reading a book and doing homework"!

Remember, all you have to do is change the verb in the first sentence into it's -te form and you're set! You can even use this for three, or four, or more sentences, changing each sentance's verb into the -te form, save for the last sentence.


Ugh I so need a chalkboard to explain things -_-;; So much easier to explain on a board where I can write out sentences than online...If anyone is confused by anything (and I'm sure there will be people completely confused by what I just said), just tell me what parts are confusing and I'll try to change them to something easier to understand biggrin