All Forms, All Classes: Master Chart | Japanese Grammar

This page closes the Verb Reference. Every other page in this subgroup zooms in on a single form; this one pulls back and puts all of them in one grid — every major conjugation down the left, the four model verbs 書（か）く・食（た）べる・する・来（く）る across the top. It exists for the moment you're mid-sentence and blank on, say, whether 来る's potential and passive really are the same word (they are: 来られる) while its volitional is different (来よう). Instead of opening four pages, you glance at one row.

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Memorise the columns, not the cells. Once 書く (五段), 食べる (一段), する, and 来る are automatic, every other verb in the language copies one of these four — pick the class from the model-verb index and read down the matching column.

The master chart

Form	書く (五段)	食べる (一段)	する	来る
Dictionary (辞書形)	書く	食べる	する	来る（くる）
Polite ます	書きます	食べます	します	来ます（きます）
Negative ない	書かない	食べない	しない	来ない（こない）
Past た	書いた	食べた	した	来た（きた）
Past negative	書かなかった	食べなかった	しなかった	来なかった（こ〜）
te-form	書いて	食べて	して	来て（きて）
Potential	書ける	食べられる／食べれる	できる	来られる／来れる（こ〜）
Passive	書かれる	食べられる	される	来られる（こられる）
Causative	書かせる	食べさせる	させる	来させる（こさせる）
Causative-passive	書かせられる／書かされる	食べさせられる	させられる	来させられる（こ〜）
Volitional	書こう	食べよう	しよう	来よう（こよう）
Conditional ば	書けば	食べれば	すれば	来れば（くれば）
Imperative	書け	食べろ／食べよ	しろ／せよ	来い（こい）
Prohibitive	書くな	食べるな	するな	来るな（くるな）

Each row is unpacked on its own page — the ます-form, the ない-form, the potential, the passive, the causative, the conditionals, the imperative, and the rest. What this sheet adds is the cross-form view: the traps live between rows and between columns, and that's what the rest of this page walks through.

毎晩、寝る前に少しだけ日記を書く。

maiban, neru mae ni sukoshi dake nikki o kaku

Every night before bed I write a little in my diary. (dictionary 書く)

このバスは十分おきに来ますよ。

kono basu wa juppun oki ni kimasu yo

This bus comes every ten minutes. (来ます, read kimasu)

Trap 1: する's potential is できる

The loudest trap on the whole chart. Every other form of する is built regularly (される, させる, しよう), but the potential is suppletive: "can do" is できる, a completely separate verb — not ×しれる, not ×せられる (that's the passive). This is why the できる potential page exists at all. It matters constantly, because thousands of する-compounds inherit it: 予約する → 予約できる, 運転する → 運転できる.

予約はスマホからでもできますよ。

yoyaku wa sumaho kara demo dekimasu yo

You can make a reservation from your phone too. (する potential = できる)

Trap 2: 来る is a reading minefield

来る is written with one kanji whose reading changes in almost every row. The verb doesn't just conjugate — it re-pronounces. Read the 来る column aloud and you get three different vowels:

Reading	Forms
く (ku)	来る, 来れば（くれば）
き (ki)	来ます, 来た, 来て, 来たい
こ (ko)	来ない, 来られる, 来させる, 来よう, 来い

The kanji hides all of this, so the reading is the hardest thing about 来る — far harder than its shapes. The 来る paradigm page drills it.

朝から友達に来られて、全然勉強できなかった。

asa kara tomodachi ni korarete, zenzen benkyō dekinakatta

A friend came over on me all morning, so I couldn't study at all. (来られる passive, korarete)

Trap 3: potential and passive are the same word for 一段 and 来る

Look at the 食べる and 来る columns: 食べられる is both the potential ("can eat") and the passive ("be eaten"), and 来られる is both "can come" and "be come-upon." For 一段 verbs and 来る, these two forms are identical, and only context tells them apart.

明日の午後なら来られる？

ashita no gogo nara korareru?

Can you come tomorrow afternoon? (来られる potential — same shape as the passive above)

Colloquial Japanese resolves the ambiguity by dropping the ら in the potential only — the ら抜き言葉（らぬきことば）: 食べれる, 来れる, 見れる. This re-separates potential (食べれる) from passive (食べられる), which is a large part of why it spread. It's casual/spoken, still avoided in formal writing, and gets its own ら抜き page. 五段 verbs never had this problem: 書ける (potential) and 書かれる (passive) were always distinct.

Trap 4: the causative-passive contracts only for 五段

The causative-passive ("was made to do") is long — 書かせられる, 食べさせられる — so 五段 verbs contract it to 書かされる, 歌わされる, 読まされる. This contraction is not available to 一段, する, or 来る: 食べさせられる has no ×食べさされる, and させられる stays させられる. (One caveat even within 五段: す-ending verbs like 話す keep the full 話させられる, since 話さされる is blocked.)

飲み会で、最後まで歌わされた。

nomikai de, saigo made utawasareta

At the drinking party, I got made to sing right to the end. (五段 causative-passive, contracted 歌わされる)

先生は生徒たちに、感想を書かせた。

sensei wa seito-tachi ni, kansō o kakaseta

The teacher had the students write their impressions. (causative 書かせる)

A few rows in natural use

ちょっと疲れたね、そろそろ休憩しようか。

chotto tsukareta ne, sorosoro kyūkei shiyō ka

A bit tired, huh — shall we take a break soon? (する volitional しよう)

お腹すいたね、何か食べようよ。

onaka suita ne, nanika tabeyō yo

I'm hungry — let's eat something. (一段 volitional 食べよう)

分からなければ、遠慮なく聞けばいいよ。

wakaranakereba, enryo naku kikeba ii yo

If you don't understand, just ask — no need to hold back. (conditional 聞けば)

危ない、早く逃げろ！

abunai, hayaku nigero!

It's dangerous — run! (一段 imperative 逃げろ)

For English speakers: one root, a whole grid

English builds most of this with helper words the main verb never absorbs: can write, was written, made to write, let's write. The verb "write" barely moves (write / wrote / written). Japanese does the opposite — it fuses every one of those meanings onto the verb stem as a suffix, producing a genuine grid where a single root spawns a dozen distinct words. That's why this chart is worth memorising as a shape: you're not learning twelve helper words, you're learning how one stem grows twelve endings. And because the endings are regular within a class, the whole language's verb system is really just these four columns plus the model-verb index telling you which column a new verb joins.

Common mistakes

1. Building する's potential regularly. It's the suppletive できる, not ×しれる or ×せられる.

❌ 私はまだ日本語で電話がしれない。

Wrong — する's potential is the suppletive できる: 電話ができない.

✅ 私はまだ日本語で電話ができない。

watashi wa mada nihongo de denwa ga dekinai

I still can't make phone calls in Japanese.

2. Misreading the 来る column. The kanji stays 来 but the reading shifts by row: 来ます is きます, 来ない is こない.

❌ 田中さんは今日くない。

Wrong reading — 来ない is こない (ko-row), not くない. The kanji hides the shift.

✅ 田中さんは今日来ない。

tanaka-san wa kyō konai

Tanaka isn't coming today.

3. Giving a 五段 verb the 一段 volitional よう. 五段 volitional is おう (書こう); only 一段 uses よう (食べよう).

❌ そろそろ返事を書きよう。

Wrong — 五段 volitional is 書こう (o-row ＋う). よう is the 一段 ending.

✅ そろそろ返事を書こう。

sorosoro henji o kakō

It's about time I wrote a reply.

4. Contracting a 一段 causative-passive. The 書かされる-style contraction is 五段-only; 食べさせられる stays full.

❌ 苦手な野菜を食べさされた。

Wrong — the causative-passive contraction is only for 五段 verbs; 一段 keeps the full 食べさせられる.

✅ 子供の頃、苦手な野菜を食べさせられた。

kodomo no koro, nigate na yasai o tabesaserareta

As a kid, I was made to eat vegetables I disliked.

5. Using ら抜き potential in formal writing. 食べれる・来れる are casual speech; formal writing keeps 食べられる・来られる.

❌ 本日はご出席になられますか、来れますか。

Wrong register — in polite/written Japanese the potential keeps ら: 来られますか.

✅ 本日は来られますか。

honjitsu wa koraremasu ka

Will you be able to come today?

Key takeaways

Learn the four columns — 書く・食べる・する・来る — and every verb copies one of them.
する's potential is できる (suppletive), never ×しれる; it passes to all する-compounds (予約できる).
来る's reading shifts く/き/こ across the rows — the reading, not the shape, is the hard part.
食べられる and 来られる are potential and passive; casual ら抜き (食べれる・来れる) separates the potential out.
The causative-passive contracts only for 五段 (書かされる・歌わされる), not for 一段・する・来る.
五段 volitional is おう (書こう); よう is 一段 (食べよう).

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