う-Verb (Dictionary)
う + ます (Godan Verbs)
Structure
座る
歌う
歩く
話す
打つ
死ぬ
飛ぶ
休む
泳ぐ
Explanation
う-Verbs are a class of Japanese verbs whose dictionary form ends with a 'u' vowel sound (this includes some verbs that end in る). In Japanese, these are known as Godan (五段) verbs, meaning 'five-level', because their conjugations utilize all five vowel sounds from the hiragana column (段) of their final character.
- 父はよく海で泳ぐ。My dad often swims in the ocean.
- 子供たちはプールで泳ぎます。The children swim in the pool.
As shown above, the ぐ in 泳ぐ shifts to ぎ for the polite conjugation. Depending on the grammatical form, 泳ぐ will use every other sound in the G-column. This is a characteristic of all う-Verbs.
泳がない, 泳ぎたい, 泳ぐ, 泳げる, 泳ごう
Here, we can observe the う-Verb 泳ぐ making use of all the different G-column sounds across a range of conjugations.
Caution
Similarly to る-Verbs, the dictionary form of a verb might be referred to as 'plain form', 'short form', or 'casual form', depending on the textbook or learning resource.
Examples
書く → 書きます
To write
作る → 作ります
To make/create
読む→ 読みます
To read
待つ → 待ちます
To wait
買う → 買います
To buy
遊ぶ → 遊びます。
To play
働く → 働きます
To work
脱ぐ → 脱ぎます
To take off (clothing)
貸す → 貸します
To lend
磨く → 磨きます
To brush/polish
知る → 知ります
To know
売る → 売ります
To sell