Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

<p>
	In Japanese the <strong>ability</strong> to perform an action is expressed through <strong>conjugation of the verb</strong>,
	instead of by using auxiliary verbs like <strong>can</strong> and <strong>to be able to</strong>. 
	This conjugation puts the verb into the <strong>potential form</strong>.
</p>

<p>
	The potential form of all verbs ends in <strong>-る</strong>, and all potential forms are Group 2 verbs.
	Therefore, to convert a verb in potential form into <strong>-ます</strong> form,
	you simply replace the <strong>-る</strong> ending with <strong>-ます</strong>.
</p>

<p>
	How the original verb is conjugated into the potential form depends on the verb group.
</p>

<p>
	For verbs in <strong>Group 2</strong>, change the <strong>-る</strong> ending into <strong>-られる</strong>.
</p>

<table class="ui celled definition table">
	<thead>
		<tr>
			<th>Group 2 verbs</th>
			<th><ruby>食ta</ruby>べる</th>
			<th><ruby>見mi</ruby>る</th>
		</tr>
	</thead>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Potential form</td>
			<td><ruby>食ta</ruby>べられる</td>
			<td><ruby>見mi</ruby>られる</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Polite potential form</td>
			<td><ruby>食ta</ruby>べられます</td>
			<td><ruby>見mi</ruby>られます</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Translation</td>
			<td>to be able to eat</td>
			<td>to be able to see</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>
	For verbs in <strong>Group 1</strong>, change the final <strong>う-sound</strong> into an <strong>え-sound</strong>,
	and add <strong>-る</strong> as ending.
</p>

<table class="ui celled definition table">
	<thead>
		<tr>
			<th>Group 1 verbs</th>
			<th><ruby>行i</ruby>く</th>
			<th><ruby>話hana</ruby>す</th>
			<th><ruby>飲no</ruby>む</th>
		</tr>
	</thead>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Potential form</td>
			<td><ruby>行i</ruby>ける</td>
			<td><ruby>話hana</ruby>せる</td>
			<td><ruby>飲no</ruby>める</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Polite potential form</td>
			<td><ruby>行i</ruby>けます</td>
			<td><ruby>話hana</ruby>せます</td>
			<td><ruby>飲no</ruby>めます</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Translation</td>
			<td>to be able to go</td>
			<td>to be able to speak</td>
			<td>to be able to drink</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>
	The potential forms of, <strong>する</strong> and <strong><ruby>来ku</ruby>る</strong> are special cases.
</p>

<table class="ui celled definition table">
	<thead>
		<tr>
			<th>Special cases</th>
			<th>する</th>
			<th><ruby>来ku</ruby>る</th>
		</tr>
	</thead>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Potential form</td>
			<td>できる</td>
			<td><ruby>来ko</ruby>られる</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Polite potential form</td>
			<td>できます</td>
			<td><ruby>来ko</ruby>られます</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Translation</td>
			<td>to be able to do</td>
			<td>to be able to come</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>
	When using the potential form, what in English would be the object, is the subject in Japanese.
	Therefore you will see the subject particle <strong>が</strong> where you would expect the object particle <strong>を</strong>.
</p>

Indicating ability with the potential form

adjectival noun

adjectival phrase

adnominal

adverb

adverbial noun

adverbial phrase

auxiliary

case particle

compound

conjunction

conjunctive particle

discourse

discourse particle

expression

godan - group 1

group 3

hiragana character

hiragana writing

i-adjective

interjection

intransitive

itidan - group 2

kanji

kanji component

kanji writing

katakana character

katakana writing

na-adjective

noun

numeral

particle

phrase

prefix

pronoun

proper noun

reading vocabulary

sentence

suffix

transitive

verb

The verb to be

Hiragana 1

Kanji 1

Writing hiragana 1

Writing kanji 1

Hiragana 2

Kanji 2

The question particle か

Writing hiragana 2

This one and that one

Writing kanji 2

Reading exercise 1

Reading exercise 2

Hiragana 3

Negating nouns

Writing hiragana 3

The topic particle は

Kanji 3

The possession particle の

い-adjectives and な-adjectives

The subject particle が

Here and there

There is, there are

Writing kanji 3

Kanji 4

Group 1 verbs, direct and indirect objects

Group 2 verbs

Hiragana 4

Verbs in the past tense

Negating verbs

Invitations and the particle と

Negating past verbs

Writing hiragana 4

Reading exercise 3

Writing kanji 4

Reading exercise 4

Kanji 5

Nouns and the past tense

This and that

The group 3 verbs する and 来る

The discourse particles ね and よ

The location particles に and で

Hiragana 5

Writing hiragana 5

Writing kanji 5

The destination particles に and へ

Kanji 6

The origin particle から

Hiragana 6

Relative positions

Conjugating い-adjectives

Writing hiragana 6

Writing kanji 6

Hiragana 7

Writing hiragana 7

Kanji 7

Conjugating な-adjectives

How are you?

The particle も

The word ちょっと

Question	Answer
Tanaka ^surname	田た中なかtanaka
Arabic	アラビア語ごarabiago
potential form	〜える；　〜られる〜eru; 〜rareru For verbs in Group 1, change the final う-sound into an え-sound, and add -る as ending. For verbs in Group 2, change the -る ending into -られる.
to be able to speak	話はなせる話はなされる話はなられる hanaseru hanasareru hanarareru
Mr. Tanaka can speak Arabic.	田た中なか　さん　は　アラビア語ご　が　話はなせます。tanaka san wa arabiago ga hanasemasu.
to be able to come	来こられる来くられる来くれる来これる korareru kurareru kureru koreru
I can't come to meet you.	あなた　に　会あい　に　来こられません。anata ni ai ni koraremasen.
shrimp	エビebi
to be able to eat	食たべられる食たべれる taberareru tabereru
I cannot eat more shrimp.	もう　えび　が　食たべられません。mou ebi ga taberaremasen.
to be able to make	作つくれる作つくられる tsukureru tsukurareru
I cannot make dinner tonight.	こんばん　夜よるご飯はん　が　作つくれません。konban yorugohan ga tsukuremasen.
village; hometown	里さとsato
(I) cannot go to my hometown now.	今いま　里さと　に　行いけません。ima sato ni ikemasen.
story; talk	話はなしhanashi
to believe; to trust	信しんじるshinjiru
to be able to believe/trust	信しんじられる信しんじれる shinjirareru shinjireru
I cannot believe this story.	私わたし　は　この　話はなし　が　信しんじられません。watashi wa kono hanashi ga shinjiraremasen.
to be able to do	できるdekiru
I can't do it.	できません。dekimasen.
whisky	ウイスキーuisukii
I cannot drink whisky.	ウイスキー　が　飲のめません。uisukii ga nomemasen.

Contributors