Conjugable words (verbs, i‑adjectives, and na‑adjectives) are traditionally considered to have six possible . This article lists those from the , as well as the .
Infinitive The infinitive, or continuative functions as type of adverbial or conjunctive clause. A clause ending in an infinitive is placed before one ending in a conclusive. The infinitive has various meanings that overlap with those of the gerund.
Infinitive form example sentences English Japanese Function I'll just say that if he had been away the project would have become more exact and have gone smoother. simple conjoining ("do A, and also do B") The mountains are tall, and the waters pure. What are you saying⁉ I'm always pure and proper‼ Motoko is taken into the mat-floored room, and ordered to undo her waistband. temporal sequence ("do A, and then do B") Before long summer was over and it became autumn. The game was called off because of rain, what a pity. consequence ("do A, and so do B") There is a small hole in the shoji so that the outside light penetrates. The shoji paper is rather old and soiled. The older brother became a physician, and the younger a literary scholar. contrast ("do A, and/but do B") Such rumors centering on the Kremlin are apt to arise at the least little thing, but then they have always ended up as groundless rumors. a beautiful yet sad epic concession ("do A, and yet do B") This year these applications are off to an earlier start than in ordinary years. manner ("do A, and in the process, do B") You end up with a depression if you don't start creating demand by investing new capital. instrument ("do A, and by that, do B")
Infinitive: Conjugation table In the domestic tradition of grammar, all inflected words have their own , regardless of whether they can stand alone or must be followed by auxiliaries. In western analyses, "infinitives" must be able to stand on their own, and forms with auxiliaries are treated separately. Thus, such forms as and are considered ren'yōkei in the native tradition, but not infinitives in western analyses as they cannot be on their own and must be followed by or .
The infinitive forms of the copulae and of adjectives function adverbially without additional auxiliaries just like those of verbs:
The verb aru, the adjective nai and the particle ‑te are instrumental in expanding copulae's and adjectives' conjugation by fusing with their infinitive forms: Imperfective: ni + aru → na(ru) de + aru → de aru → da/ja ‑ku + aru → ‑karu Negative: de + nai → de/ja nai de + aran(u)/‑zu → de/ja aran(u)/‑zu ‑ku + nai → ‑ku nai ‑ku + aran(u)/‑zu → ‑karan(u)/‑zu Perfective: de + atta → de atta → datta/jatta ‑ku + atta → ‑katta Conjectural: de + arō → de arō → darō/jarō ‑ku + arō → ‑karō Imperative: de + are → de are ‑ku + are → ‑kare Conditional: ni + araba → naraba de + areba → de areba Gerund: ‑ku + te → ‑kute ‑ku + atte → ‑katte
Just like how da can be "split", or unfused, back to de (wa) aru, with added particles, the above fused forms can be split, as in .
The particle ‑te itself was once an infinitive form as well, and it combined with aru to make ‑ta and ‑tarō, although the latter of which is increasingly displaced by ‑ta darō or ‑ta deshō.
Unlike verbal infinitive forms which can combine with ‑masu(ru) to make polite forms, as in , adjectives use conclusive forms and desu instead, as in , but occasionally also with infinitives and arimasu, as in . When honorific godan verbs combine with ‑masu(ru), it is more common to drop the consonant r; keeping the r is obsolescent and has a sarcastic, dialectal or archaic connotation.
Apart from the standard ‑ku forms, adjectives also have forms ending in long vowels. They stem from a historical loss of the consonant k, which was complete in conclusive/attributive forms (. In infinitive forms, however, such loss was complete only in western dialects; in standard Japanese, it is restricted to formations with gozaimasu to make hyper-polite expressions, as in , compared to regularly polite . Western sound changes of this type are obligatory in the affirmative, but optional in the negative, hence . In cases where there are triply long vowels, such as , the actual pronunciations may only involve doubly long vowels, as in ō gozaimasu. Cases like are phonetically suspect as to whether there is still a lingering w sound and whether there is a reduction to a doubly long vowel (yo(w)ō gozaimasu or yō gozaimasu (?)). Some of these hyper-polite adjectives have become idioms, such as , , . The sound changes resulting from the historical ‑u ending are usually spelt out in modern kana as shown below, although some historical spellings may still be used sometimes, such as instead of . For , there was such a historical sound change as beku → beu → byō, and has been attested.
Like ‑ku, ‑zu can fuse with ‑aru as well to expand its own conjugation (‑zaru, ‑zareba) independent of ‑n(u), though these forms are largely confined to elevated language or cliches like , , , , etc.
Dictionary form Pattern Infinitive form Godan and pseudo-yodan verbs Honorific godan verbs Ichidan verbs Irregular verbs Adjectives and adjectival auxiliaries Special auxiliaries
Infinitive: Grammatical compatibility Infinitives allow "splitting", or adding particles like wa or mo between the infinitives and a following verb/adjective to redirect focus. The following verb/adjective is aru/arimasu or nai/arimasen with copulae and adjectives, and suru/shimasu or shinai/shimasen with other verbs. There is a strong tendency to focus on negatives, namely nai/arimasen and shinai/shimasen. In the following examples, the focused information is underlined in the Japanese originals, and in all-caps in the English translations to emulate spoken emphasis. de aru / da → de wa aru, de atta / datta → de wa atta, de arimasu / desu → de wa arimasu, de arimashita / deshita → de wa arimashita → de/ja nai → de wa nai, de/ja nakatta → de wa nakatta, de/ja nai desu / arimasen → de wa / ja(a) nai desu / arimasen, de/ja nakatta desu / arimasen deshita → de wa / ja(a) nakatta desu / arimasen deshita → ii/yoi → yoku wa aru, yokatta → yoku wa atta, ii/yoi desu → yoku wa arimasu, yokatta desu → yoku wa arimashita → yoku nai → yoku wa nai, yoku nakatta → yoku wa nakatta, yoku nai desu → yoku wa nai desu / arimasen, yoku nakatta desu → yoku wa nakatta desu / arimasen deshita → iku → iki wa suru, itta → iki wa shita, ikimasu → iki wa shimasu, ikimashita → iki wa shimashita → ikanai → iki wa shinai, ikanakatta → iki wa shinakatta, ikimasen → iki wa shimasen, ikimasen deshita → iki wa shimasen deshita → suru → shi wa suru, shita → shi wa shita, shimasu → shi wa shimasu, shimashita → shi wa shimashita → shinai → shi wa shinai, shinakatta → shi wa shinakatta, shimasen → shi wa shimasen, shimasen deshita → shi wa shimasen deshita →
Accentually, if a verb is to be accented, all their forms without auxiliaries or particles are minimally accented on the second mora from last, for example, . However, infinitives are capable of being unimoraic, which means they can only be accented on the last and only mora they have. Furthermore, if an unaccented verb is followed by a particle, the particle places an accent on the verb's last mora anyway, resulting in a handful homophonous pairs such as these: Unaccented: Accented: ; Unaccented: Accented:
The infinitive form is also compatible with an extensive list of particles and auxiliaries. Of these, the polite auxiliary ‑masu used to have , whose prototype is the verb suru. As shown elsewhere in this article, unlike suru which has normal eastern shapes and elevated western shapes in Tokyo Japanese, ‑masu retains its western shapes. Surus general shapes: su, suru Surus eastern shapes: shinai, shinakatta, shiyō, shiro Surus western shapes: sen/senu, senanda, shō, seyo/sē/sei ‑Masus general shapes: ‑masu, ‑masuru ‑Masus eastern shapes: ‑mashinai, ‑mashinakatta, ‑mashi ‑Masus western shapes: ‑masen/‑masenu, ‑masenanda, ‑mashō, ‑mase/‑masē/‑masei