Verb Stem Form
“A stem cell is essentially a blank cell capable of becoming another, more differentiated cell-type in the body, such as a skin cell, a muscle cell or a nerve cell.” - Virginia Foxx
The first type of “want” you’ll be learning is the verb kind. As in:
I want to see “Batman”
I want to eat fugu
I want to study Japanese
You want to do something (rather than wanting something… as in, “I want a video game”). In order to be able to do this, you have to learn about another (very simple) verb conjugation called “stem form.” It’s called “stem form” because you’re stripping the verb down to its “stem” (i.e. the part of the verb that has meaning). Here’s what I mean:
たべます → たべ (stem form)
します → し (stem form)
いきます → いき (stem form)
You’re removing the ます part so that all you have left is the “stem.” Every verb has a ます on it, but the part before the ます is unique for each word (at least for the most part). For this page, all you need to be able to do is change a verb from polite form down to stem form. We’ll practice a little bit, and then move on. As long as you know your verb vocabulary, this shouldn’t be too difficult.
かいます →
ききます →
よみます →
おもいます →
わかります →
かきます →
あるきます →
わらいます →
きめます →
かい
きき
よみ
おもい
わかり
かき
あるき
わらい
きめ
To be able to convert verbs to stem form, you don’t actually need to know the verb itself. That being said, though, make sure you know your verbs vocab from both List 1 and List 2. In theory, if you’ve been following along and keeping up with your reviews, you should know those lists fairly well. If not, make sure you review them before moving on, since we’ll be using them now!