In my years of studying Japanese and living in Japan I have had a never ending battle with Japanese verbs. In my experience mastering verbs is one of the hardest aspects of learning the Japanese language. I first realized this when I came to work in Japan for the first time. Having studied the basic Japanese  I thought it would take me no time before I would be speaking to the locals. Greetings and small talk weren’t a problem, but listening and trying to understand Japanese having conversations was something else.

Learn Japanese Verbs

In colloquial speech Japanese can almost have entire conversations just using verbs if the subject and object is understood by the speaker and listener. Understanding who or what is being spoken about can be very confusing unless you know and understand verb forms. Learning verbs is difficult because there are so many conjugations. Not having a solid grounding in “verb conjugation” will definitely compromise your ability to speak, read and understand Japanese. Needless to say, it is very important that you learn Japanese verbs.

The hardest hurdle with understanding Japanese conversation is the ambiguity or vagueness of verbs. Japanese verbs have no plural form, and correspondingly, verbs do not inflect for number. For example, this phrase “Hon wo Kaimashita” could mean I bought a book or I bought some books. We can’t determine the number.

Japanese verbs also do not inflect for person. So the verb “iku” to go could mean “I go”, “I will go”, “I am going “, “shall we go”, “will you go”, or “they will go”. Also, in impolite speech a single verb can be a “asked” as a question. Although, this does mean you have less to study or worry about say compared to French or German, understanding or knowing what is being spoken about becomes difficult with complex verbs.

Japanese Verbs – Lesson 1