The Four Types Of Verbs
“To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes
All this time you’ve been learning verbs but probably had no idea there were different “types” of verbs. It’s not as obvious a difference as な and い adjectives (though it’s a similar concept), and really isn’t that important to know much about until you need to start converting verbs over to casual form. The four types are:
- Group 1 Verbs
- Group 2 Verbs
- Group 3 Verbs (Irregular Verbs)
- する Verbs (verbs that are noun+する/します)
The する Verbs are pretty easy to identify, because they stand out pretty well. The Group 3 verbs (irregular/exception verbs that don’t follow the same rules as everyone else) are pretty easy too, since there are only a few of them. Group 1 and 2 verbs might seem daunting at first, but once you learn the rules for them changing them from ます to the casual dictionary form isn’t all that bad. Being able to change them on the fly in your head will be difficult at first, but I’ll tell you how to practice the verbs so that conversion will get much easier with time (and you won’t even have to think about it).
First, let’s look at Group 1 Verbs and learn how to change them from ます to dictionary form.