Master Japanese TE-Form in 3 Minutes – Guide

Ah, the te form.

Be quiet! Shut up! Eat it! You dirtbag!

Okay, I didn’t mean the last part about the bag. But, if you want to say all these juicy phrases in Japanese, you’ll need the te form. The te form is a common and super important part of Japanese grammar.

And you’ll master it in the next 3 minutes. So… read!

Want a pack of 30+ Japanese PDF Lessons & Cheat Sheets? These colorful and printable PDFs teach you Japanese words and phrases… and they’re free. Click here to get Japanese PDF Lessons

Part 1: What is the Japanese Te Form?

The Japanese te form (て) is used to do a few things…. but most known for giving commands.

Here are the most common uses of te form:

1. Making Requests & Commands – “Eat it!”

In other words, telling people what to do.

Like saying ” please do it,” “eat,” “stop it,” “go to sleep,” and such.

So, if you want someone to eat, you would say…

• 食べてください
  • tabete kudasai)
    • “eat please” or just “eat” in a polite tone.

You can also drop the “please/kudasai” and the request becomes a command.

• 食べて
  • tabete)
  • meaning “eat!” or “eat it!”

2. Connect Actions – “I ate and drank.”

Use the te form to also connect verbs in a sentence. Like, “I ate and drank.”

Here, the te-form acts like the word “and” or “then” in English. For example, if you wanted to say that you ate and drank, you would use the te form and say…

3. Expressing Ongoing Actions – “I am eating.”

You will find te form is when expressing ongoing actions.

In English, this is similar to converting a verb into -ing form.

You can express ongoing actions such as eating, 食べている (Tabe te iru) or writing 書いている (Kai te iru).

How to Conjugate Group 1, 2, and 3 Verbs

Now, how do you conjugate verbs into the te form?

Well, since there are 3 groups of Japanese verbs, there are a few ways.

Group 1 Verbs (U-Verbs)

Group 1 verbs are u-verbs — verb that end in u. Like these below.

The first category of u-verbs are those that end in u (う), tsu (つ), or ru (る).

But… not all verbs ending in u are necessarily u-verbs…

Some verbs ending in ru can often be confused with the Group 2 verbs.

It is essential to learn which ru verbs belong in Group 1 and Group 2.

帰る (kaeru) is one of those annoying verbs.

Sadly, there are no exact rules to differentiate them. You’ll need to get used to ’em.

The Group 1 verbs that end in u (う), tsu (つ), or ru (る) drop the ending, and you can replace it with tte (って) 

The next category of Group 1 verb conjugations in te form are those that end in む (mu) ぶ (bu), and ぬ (nu).

These conjugate by dropping the ending and adding んで (nde). 

If a verb ends in either く(ku) or ぐ(gu) they get conjugated to いて(ite) or いで(ide). Here are some examples of those.

Finally, the last category of Group 1 verbs ends with す (su). These conjugate to become して (shite).

Group 2 Verbs (Ru-Verbs)

Ru-verbs are simpler to conjugate as you just remove the ru and add te.

Here are some examples:

Remember, some Group 2 verbs are actually in Group 1 so it is essential to remember the ones that don’t belong in this group. 

帰る (kaeru) is one of those annoying verbs.

Group 3 Verbs (Irregular Verbs)

There are two irregular verbs in Japanese, suru and kuru.

They need to be memorized in terms of how they conjugate. 

Examples of -Te Form Uses

So, now that you know how the Japanese te form works…

And how to conjugate the te form across the different verbs…

Let’s look at some examples to help it stick, okay?

1. Ongoing actions

Same as how the -ing form in English works — “eating,” “drinking,” “seeing,” and more!

• I am eating my meal.
  • ご飯を食べている。
  • Gohan o tabe te iru.
• I’m playing a game.
  • ゲームを遊んでいる。
  • Geemu o asonde iru.

2. Connecting Actions

When you want to say “I verbed and verbed” — “I ate and drank.”

• I went to school, and then I studied.
  • 学校に行って、勉強をした。
  • Gakkou ni itte, benkyou o shita.
• I’ll read the book and then sleep.
  • 本を読んでから寝る。
  • Hon o yonde kara neru.

3. Requests & Commands

And of course, the good old telling people what to do. That’s what the -te form is known for.

Requests

• Please rest.
  • 休んでください。
  • Yasunde kudasai.
• Please open it.
  • 開けてください。
  • Akete kudasai.
• Please eat.
  • 食べてください。
  • Tabete kudasai.

Commands

• Stop it!
  • やめて！
  • Yamete!
• Look!
  • 見て！
  • Mite!
• Eat!
  • 食べて！
  • Tabete!

Extra Fun Phrases

So, chances are, you want to know some fun and crazy phrases to use with the te form. I mean, I did start the article by telling you to shut up, be quiet, and other commands. So, here are some:

If you like these, then you may also want to like

• shut up in Japanese
• angry Japanese phrases

Read This Last

Read it, I said!!

Okay, I’m calm… and you’ve just mastered the Japanese te form.

Of course, it’s not ONLY tossing commands and requests.

Remember, You use the te form for…

• connecting verbs
• expressing ongoing actions
• and requests and commends

Important: If you want to get the Japanese te form stuck in your head for good… you need to be learning and practicing Japanese on a regular basis.

The more the form comes up, the more you’ll get used to it. Mastering language is all about getting “used to it.” I recommend the JapanesePod101 program (click here) because you learn through conversations and conversation lessons – not reading about rules. So if you hear it used enough time, you will master it for sure.

Anyway, hope this was helpful.

Leave a comment!

The Main Junkie