待つ: Full 五段 -つ Paradigm

This is the reference paradigm for a 五段 (godan) verb whose dictionary form ends in -つ. The model is 待つ（まつ, "to wait"). Every form the language can build from this verb is laid out in one table below, and then explained. The two things that make -つ verbs their own page: the final kana sits on the た-row column (た・ち・つ・て・と), whose romanization is famously irregular (chi, not "ti"; tsu, not "tu"), and the te-form and past take the small-っ 促音便 (sokuon-bin) — 待って, 待った — exactly like -う and -る verbs.

The complete paradigm

Why the stem never stops moving

The whole class runs on one mechanic: keep the consonant (t), slide the vowel across the five rows あ・い・う・え・お. What trips English speakers on the -つ verb specifically is that the た-column's kana are spelled irregularly in romaji, so the pattern looks broken when it is actually perfectly regular. In kana it is a clean vertical column.

The negative and causative live on the た-row, not the ち-row

Here is the single most common -つ mistake. Because you meet 待ちます first, the ち feels like "the stem." It is not — ち only surfaces before ます (and 〜たい). Everything negative-flavoured is built on the あ-row 待た: 待たない, 待たれる, 待たせる. Reach for ち there and you get ×待ちない, which no native speaker would ever say.

That last one is the causative-passive 待たされる — the contracted form of 待たせられる. It is enormously common in everyday complaints ("I was made to wait"), and the contraction 〜せられる → 〜される is the normal spoken form for 五段 verbs. See causative-passive contraction for the mechanism.

促音便: the te-form and past double the consonant

The te-form of a -つ verb is 待って, and the past is 待った. The final つ collapses into a small っ that geminates the following consonant — the same 小さいっ sound change (促音便) that -う and -る verbs use. This groups -つ with 買う→買って and 取る→取って, not with the nasal 撥音便 of -む/-ぶ/-ぬ.

The え-row cluster: potential, conditional, imperative

Three high-frequency forms all sit on the え-row 待て. The potential adds る (待てる, "can wait"); the conditional adds ば (待てば, "if you wait"); and the bare え-row is itself the plain imperative (待て, "wait!"). Because they share a shape, hearing 待て in isolation is ambiguous until context resolves it.

The plain imperative 待て is genuinely brusque: it belongs to coaches, drill instructors, dog owners, and street signs, not to polite conversation. To ask someone nicely to wait, you use the te-form request 待ってください, not the bare imperative. The prohibitive 待つな ("don't wait") is equally blunt.

Volitional and the polite request stem

The volitional 待とう ("let's wait / I think I'll wait") lives on the お-row, and the polite 待ちましょう is built from the ち-stem. The same ち-stem carries the humble set-phrase お待たせしました — although note that phrase is built on the causative stem 待たせ, a common point of confusion.

How this differs from English

English marks a verb by bolting an ending onto an unchanging stem — wait, waits, waited, waiting — and the stem's final sound never moves. 待つ works the opposite way: the ending is the stem's last kana, and it is a moving part that slides across five vowels before anything else attaches. Then, in the te-form, the language reshapes that ending into the connector itself (つ becomes っ inside 待って), so the "and" of "wait and…" isn't a separate word at all — it is baked into the verb. There is no English reflex for either move, which is exactly why beginners over-trust the one stem they met first (待ち) and try to build everything from it. Read the row you need, not the stem you remember.

Common mistakes

The common thread: -つ verbs punish you for treating ち as the all-purpose stem. It is only the polite/desiderative stem. The negative family is the た-row, and the te-form/past are the doubled 促音便.

Key takeaways

• 待つ is the model 五段 -つ verb. The consonant t stays; the vowel slides across た・ち・つ・て・と.
• Te-form and past take the 促音便: 待って, 待った — the small-っ pattern shared with -う and -る, never the nasal んで.
• The negative, passive, and causative all sit on the た-row (待たない, 待たれる, 待たせる) — ×待ちない is the classic error.
• ち (chi) and つ (tsu) look irregular in romaji but form a clean kana column; read the row, not the spelling.
• Compare the -う paradigm 買う (same 促音便) and browse every model verb from the godan class overview.