Lesson 4 of 8
Te-form Lab — nine ways in, one ending
about 10 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Produce the te-form of a known verb from its dictionary form and its group.
- Give いく its irregular te-form instead of the one the rule predicts.
Words this lesson teaches
- かう
- to buy (Group 1, ends in う)
- まつ
- to wait (Group 1, ends in つ)
- あそぶ
- to play, to spend time enjoying yourself (Group 1, ends in ぶ)
- よぶ
- to call, to call someone over (Group 1, ends in ぶ)
- いそぐ
- to hurry (Group 1, ends in ぐ)
- はなす
- to speak, to talk (Group 1, ends in す)
- いく
- to go (Group 1, and the one exception on the table)
- あける
- to open something (Group 2)
- もつ
- to hold, to carry (Group 1, ends in つ)
What it explains
Nine rules that collapse into five endings
Start from the dictionary form, not from ます. Group 2 is the easy half: drop る, add て. あける becomes あけて and there is nothing else to know. Group 1 is decided by the last character. う, つ and る all give って. む, ぶ and ぬ all give んで. く gives いて, ぐ gives いで, す gives して. Group 3 is する to して and くる to きて, which you memorise like everything else about those two. Notice what the voiced ones share: if the verb ends in a voiced sound, the ending is voiced too — んで, いで. That is not a coincidence and it makes the table smaller than it looks.
This is why Verb Lab A came first
Every rule above starts with the group and the dictionary form. From ます alone you cannot run the table: かります could be かる or かりる, and the two take different endings. If a verb's group is not solid, the te-form will not be either, and no amount of practising the table will fix it — the fix is upstream.
いく breaks its own rule
The く rule predicts いいて. The real form is いって, which is what the う・つ・る row would have given. It is the only common verb that does this, and it is a verb you will use constantly, so it is worth an extra second now. きく stays regular: きいて.