English has one shape for "can" no matter the verb — can swim, can read, can come. Japanese does not: how you build the potential form depends on the verb's class, the same ichidan / godan / irregular split you learned in the basics. Misclassify a verb and you build the wrong potential, so the ichidan-vs-godan diagnostic pays off directly here. This page gives you the rule for each class, then flags the one collision that makes it all worth understanding rather than memorizing.
ru-verbs (ichidan): drop る, add られる
For an ichidan verb, drop the final る and attach られる.
| Dictionary | Potential | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 食べる (to eat) | 食べられる | taberu → taberareru |
| 見る (to watch) | 見られる | miru → mirareru |
| 起きる (to get up) | 起きられる | okiru → okirareru |
| 教える (to teach) | 教えられる | oshieru → oshierareru |
| 出る (to leave) | 出られる | deru → derareru |
| 借りる (to borrow) | 借りられる | kariru → karirareru |
私、辛いものが全然食べられないんです。
watashi, karai mono ga zenzen taberarenai n desu
I really can't eat spicy food at all.
u-verbs (godan): shift the final -u to -e, add る
For a godan verb, change the final kana from its -u sound to the matching -e sound, then add る. Every consonant row has a clean -e partner:
| Row | Dictionary | Potential | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| く → ける | 書く (to write) | 書ける | kaku → kakeru |
| ぐ → げる | 泳ぐ (to swim) | 泳げる | oyogu → oyogeru |
| す → せる | 話す (to speak) | 話せる | hanasu → hanaseru |
| つ → てる | 待つ (to wait) | 待てる | matsu → materu |
| ぬ → ねる | 死ぬ (to die) | 死ねる | shinu → shineru |
| ぶ → べる | 遊ぶ (to play) | 遊べる | asobu → asoberu |
| む → める | 飲む (to drink) | 飲める | nomu → nomeru |
| う → える | 買う (to buy) | 買える | kau → kaeru |
| る → れる | 帰る (to go home) | 帰れる | kaeru → kaereru |
The last row is the trap that catches everyone. 帰る (kaeru) looks like an ichidan え-verb, but it is one of the classic godan exceptions, so it takes the godan route: 帰る → 帰れる (kaereru), not ×帰られる. The same holds for 入る → 入れる, 走る → 走れる, 切る → 切れる, 知る → 知れる.
明日は早く帰れそうだ。
ashita wa hayaku kaeresō da
It looks like I can go home early tomorrow.
平仮名は読めるけど、漢字はまだほとんど読めない。
hiragana wa yomeru kedo, kanji wa mada hotondo yomenai
I can read hiragana, but I still can't read almost any kanji.
泳げない人は、まず浅いプールで練習しましょう。
oyogenai hito wa, mazu asai pūru de renshū shimashō
People who can't swim should practice in the shallow pool first.
Irregulars: する → できる, 来る → 来られる
The two irregular verbs each have their own potential:
- する → できる (dekiru). This is suppletive — a completely different word, not a conjugation of する. できる is itself an ichidan verb (できます, できない, できた). Every compound する-verb inherits it: 勉強する → 勉強できる, 運転する → 運転できる, 予約する → 予約できる.
- 来る（くる）→ 来られる（こられる）. The kanji stays 来, but the reading shifts from kuru to korareru. (Casual speech also produces 来れる／これる — the ら-nuki form.)
日本語のニュースがだいぶ聞けるようになったから、字幕なしで運転しながら聞ける。
nihongo no nyūsu ga daibu kikeru yō ni natta kara, jimaku nashi de unten shinagara kikeru
I've gotten pretty good at understanding Japanese news, so I can listen without subtitles while driving.
一人でここまで来られたの? えらいね。
hitori de koko made korareta no? erai ne
You made it all the way here by yourself? Good job.
Everything you build is an ichidan verb
Whichever route you took, the result ends in -eる or -られる and therefore conjugates as an ichidan verb. You never re-touch the original verb again — treat the potential as a fresh dictionary-form verb:
| 書ける (can write) | できる (can do) | |
|---|---|---|
| Negative | 書けない | できない |
| Past | 書けた | できた |
| Polite | 書けます | できます |
| te-form | 書けて | できて |
予約すれば、混んでいてもすぐ入れますよ。
yoyaku sureba, konde ite mo sugu hairemasu yo
If you make a reservation, you can get in right away even when it's crowded.
Why the collision matters: られる is three-way ambiguous
Here is the insight that explains why casual Japanese did something drastic to this form. A ru-verb's potential, 食べられる, is identical in shape to its passive and its honorific. All three are 食べられる:
- potential — 私はこれが食べられる ("I can eat this")
- passive — ケーキが弟に食べられた ("the cake was eaten by my little brother")
- honorific — 先生はもう食べられましたか ("Has the teacher eaten yet?" — respectful)
One form, three jobs. Context usually resolves it, but the overlap is genuinely awkward — which is precisely why colloquial speech invented the ら-nuki form 食べれる to mark "can eat" unambiguously. The u-verb potentials never had this problem: 書ける is a potential and nothing else, so there was never any ら to drop. For the full three-way disambiguation strategy, see passive vs potential vs honorific.
Common mistakes
❌ 私は日本語が話せれる。
watashi wa nihongo ga hanasereru
Incorrect — 話す is godan, so its potential is 話せる. Don't add an extra れ.
✅ 私は日本語が話せる。
watashi wa nihongo ga hanaseru
I can speak Japanese.
Padding a u-verb potential with an extra れ (話せる → ×話せれる, 書ける → ×書けれる) is a hypercorrection called れ足す言葉 (retasu kotoba). It is nonstandard — the u-verb form is already complete at -eる.
❌ 明日は早く帰られる。
ashita wa hayaku kaerareru
Incorrect — 帰る is a godan exception, so its potential is 帰れる, not 帰られる.
✅ 明日は早く帰れる。
ashita wa hayaku kaereru
I can go home early tomorrow.
Mis-sorting 帰る／入る／走る as ichidan and giving them られる is the mirror error. They look ichidan but are godan → -eる.
❌ 私は車が運転するできる。
watashi wa kuruma ga unten suru dekiru
Incorrect — する's potential is the suppletive できる; don't keep する beside it.
✅ 私は車が運転できる。
watashi wa kuruma ga unten dekiru
I can drive a car.
❌ 面接に一人で来れますか。
mensetsu ni hitori de koremasu ka
Casual-only — for a formal context the standard potential of 来る is 来られる（こられる）.
✅ 面接に一人で来られますか。
mensetsu ni hitori de koraremasu ka
Can you come to the interview by yourself?
Key takeaways
- ru-verbs: drop る, add られる (食べる → 食べられる).
- u-verbs: shift the final -u to -e, add る (書く → 書ける, 帰る → 帰れる — a godan exception!).
- Irregulars: する → できる (suppletive), 来る → 来られる（こられる）.
- The result is always an ichidan verb — conjugate the potential itself (書けない, できた).
- The ru-verb form られる is potential = passive = honorific, which is why casual speech spawned the ら-nuki 食べれる.
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- The Potential Form: Expressing 'Can'N4 — An introduction to the potential form 可能形 — the stative conjugation that turns a verb into 'can / is able to,' and why its object leans toward が.
- ら抜き言葉: 見れる, 食べれるN4 — ら抜き言葉 — the colloquial potential that drops the ら from 見られる and 食べられる, why it exists, and where it is still marked nonstandard.
- One 〜られる, Three MeaningsN3 — How a single 〜られる ending carries passive, potential, and honorific meanings at once — and the systematic particle, animacy, and register cues that tell them apart.