Irregular te-forms: Master Roundup | Japanese Grammar

The Japanese te-form is almost perfectly mechanical: look at the verb's ending, apply the sound-change chart, done. The good news this page delivers is that the exceptions — verbs whose te/ta break their own class rule — form a tiny closed list. Once you have met these few, you can trust the chart for everything else. This is the one place to confirm an odd te-form you have run into.

The complete list

That is genuinely all of them. Nothing else in standard modern Japanese forms an unpredictable te/ta.

Verb	Class	Rule would predict	Actual te-form	What's odd
行く（いく）	く-godan	×行いて	行って (itte)	takes っ, not いて
問う（とう）	う-godan	×問って	問うて (tōte)	keeps う, not っ
請う（こう）	う-godan	×請って	請うて (kōte)	keeps う, not っ
する	irregular	—	して (shite)	whole verb irregular
来る（くる）	irregular	—	来て (kite)	irregular + reading shift く→き

The past 〜た mirrors each one exactly: 行った, 問うた, 請うた, した, 来た（きた）. If a te-form is not on this list, it obeys the chart — no exceptions.

行く → 行って — the flagship

行く is a く-godan verb, and く-godan verbs normally take イ音便: 書く → 書いて, 聞く → 聞いて, 泳ぐ → 泳いで. But 行く refuses the pattern and takes the 促音便 っ instead — 行って／行った. It is the single most important irregular te-form in the language, because 行く is so frequent and because its compounds (出て行く, 持って行く, 連れて行く) all inherit the っ. The deep dive lives at 行く: the te-form exception.

ちょっとコンビニ行ってくる。

chotto konbini itte kuru

I'm just running to the convenience store. (casual)

傘、持って行ってね。降りそうだから。

kasa, motte itte ne. furisō da kara

Take an umbrella — it looks like it's going to rain. (持って行く keeps 行って)

Contrast a regular く-verb so the exception stands out:

お名前をここに書いてください。

o-namae o koko ni kaite kudasai

Please write your name here. (書く → 書いて, the normal く rule)

問う・請う → 問うて・請うて — the archaic う-keepers

At the opposite corner sit the bookish う-godan verbs 問う（とう, "to ask, to call into question"） and 請う（こう, "to request"）. Ordinary う-verbs double into っ (買う → 買って, 会う → 会って), but these two keep the older う: 問うて／問うた, 請うて／請うた — never ×問って. They are literary survivors, common in the passive 問われる and in set phrases (責任を問う, 〜を問わず, 請うご期待). Full treatment at 問う・請う: the archaic -う te/ta.

責任を問われて、社長が辞任した。

sekinin o towarete, shachō ga jinin shita

Held to account, the president resigned. (問う, passive)

先生に教えを請うて、論文を書き上げた。

sensei ni oshie o kōte, ronbun o kakiageta

I sought my professor's guidance and finished writing the paper. (請う → 請うて, formal)

する → して and 来る → 来て — the irregular verbs

The two irregular verbs する and 来る have no class rule to break — their whole paradigms are memorized — but their te-forms belong on any list of "forms you can't derive." する → して; 来る → 来て, which also shifts the reading from く to き（くる → きて）.

宿題をして、それから遊びに行った。

shukudai o shite, sore kara asobi ni itta

I did my homework and then went out to play. (する → して, and note 行った)

早く来て！バスが出ちゃうよ。

hayaku kite! basu ga dechau yo

Hurry up and come — the bus is leaving! (来る → 来て, read きて)

Every noun + する verb inherits して (勉強して, 電話して), and every 〜てくる / 〜てくる compound inherits きて.

Why these five — and why the list stays short

The exceptions are not random noise; each has a reason, which is also why no new ones keep appearing:

行く generalized the 促音便っ by euphony. The regular く-verb outcome would have been 行きて → 行いて, and Japanese disfavored that shape for such a high-frequency verb of motion; the っ won out and then locked in. (The precise phonological history is debated, but the result is stable and universal.)
問う・請う are the reverse case: they never adopted the eastern っ at all, keeping the older ウ音便う that Western Japanese still uses across the board. They are literary fossils, not innovations.
する・来る are suppletive irregulars from the ground up — their whole paradigms, te-form included, are memorized units, not derivations.

Because all five are lexically fixed, the class of te-form exceptions is closed: no productive rule generates more. A brand-new loanword verb like グーグルする ("to google") or a coined godan verb slots straight into the chart — グーグルして, never anything odd. Whenever the past 〜た, the たら conditional, or the たり alternative appears, it simply inherits whatever the te-form did: 行って ↔ 行った ↔ 行ったら, 問うて ↔ 問うた ↔ 問うたら, して ↔ した, 来て ↔ 来た.

What only looks irregular

Most "help, this te-form seems weird" moments are not exceptions at all. Watch these three traps:

帰る → 帰って, not ×帰て. 帰る（かえる）ends in -eru and looks 一段, but it is a godan-る verb, so it takes the っ. Same for 走る, 要る, 切る, 知る, 入る — all godan る.
ある → あって, perfectly regular. ある is a godan-る verb; only its negative (ない) is irregular, not its te-form.
買うて／会うて are Kansai, not standard. In Tokyo Japanese every everyday う-verb doubles: 買って, 会って. Only 問う・請う keep the う.

今日は早く帰って、ゆっくりしたい。

kyō wa hayaku kaette, yukkuri shitai

I want to get home early today and take it easy. (帰る → 帰って, regular godan っ)

時間があって、本当に助かった。

jikan ga atte, hontō ni tasukatta

It really helped that I had the time. (ある → あって, regular)

💡

The -る honorifics — いらっしゃる, おっしゃる, くださる, なさる, ござる — are irregular in their ます-stem and imperative (いらっしゃい・ください), not in their te-form: いらっしゃって, おっしゃって are plain regular っ. Don't file them here.

Common mistakes

❌ 週末、京都に行いてきた。

Incorrect — 行く breaks the く→いて rule and takes っ: 行って.

✅ 週末、京都に行ってきた。

shūmatsu, kyōto ni itte kita

I went to Kyoto over the weekend.

❌ 責任を問って、辞任を求めた。

Incorrect — 問う keeps the archaic う: 問うて, not ×問って.

✅ 責任を問うて、辞任を求めた。

sekinin o tōte, jinin o motometa

Holding him accountable, they demanded his resignation.

❌ 今日は早く帰て、休みたい。

Incorrect — 帰る is a godan-る verb, so the te-form takes っ: 帰って.

✅ 今日は早く帰って、休みたい。

kyō wa hayaku kaette, yasumitai

I want to go home early and rest today.

❌ 早くこてよ、バス出ちゃう。

Incorrect — 来る's te-form shifts the reading to き: 来て (きて), not ×こて.

✅ 早く来てよ、バス出ちゃう。

hayaku kite yo, basu dechau

Come quick — the bus is leaving.

Key takeaways

The irregular te-forms are a closed list of five: 行く→行って, 問う→問うて, 請う→請うて, する→して, 来る→来て（きて）.
行く takes っ (not the expected いて) — the highest-value exception, inherited by its compounds (持って行って).
問う・請う keep the archaic う (not っ) — the mirror-image exception; both are bookish.
する→して, 来る→来て are memorized as part of the two irregular verbs; every 〜する and 〜てくる compound inherits them.
Everything not on the list follows the sound-change chart mechanically — including the look-alikes 帰って, あって, which are perfectly regular.

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