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Description
Hopefully by now you've had time to look over all the verbs that I posted previously. If not, I highly suggest doing that first before reading on!

Please note that this is not a tutorial on how to use verbs. This is only explaining them, their base form and their dictionary form. How to use them will come at a later time!

To be blunt and honest, verbs are, in my opinion, the most difficult thing to master of the Japanese language. Don't be scared though, I'll be taking you one step at a time and (hopefully) make things easy to understand and learn. So let's get to it!

Looking at all the verbs I've posted, I'm sure some of you have noticed a trend. (If not, that's fine.) All of the verbs end in an 'u'. You might have noticed that all the 'ru' verbs end in 'ru'. Well, that's where the name came from c: The 'u' verbs are verbs that can end in things other, but not excluding, 'ru'. This could be 'ku', 'mu', 'bu', 'u' (just itself), etc. An 'u' or 'ru' is added on to the verb base ('ik' as an example from 'iku' or 'tabe' for 'taberu') which gives them their appropriate dictionary form (explained below).

I did mention that 'u' verbs can have a 'ru' ending which can be tricky seeing as how all 'ru' verbs end with that as well. There is no way to tell these apart other than memorization. With practice and learning conjugations, it becomes easier to remember them and tell them apart from each other.

--Side Note--
By learning the conjugations of 'u' and 'ru' verbs, I can see a verb and say it in 'masu' form (seen in the next tutorial) and figure out right away which it is. This isn't always the case, but it has happened and has saved me on more than one occasion!
--End Side Note--

The first thing to learn is that when approaching new verbs, you learn it's "dictionary form". They are often called this because dictionaries use this form (pretty simple, no?). This is the verb base + 'u' or 'ru' (as explained above).

The "dictionary form" of a verb is also known as the "short form" since it can also be used in informal situations. The word "short" most likely comes from the fact that informalities in Japanese often make words or sentences shorter. The case is the opposite for formalities in which the words or sentences are longer (sometimes double in size depending on how formal you are being).

The dictionary form is one way of saying the present affirmative of the verb.

Description
Hopefully by now you've had time to look over all the verbs that I posted previously. If not, I highly suggest doing that first before reading on!

Please note that this is not a tutorial on how to use verbs. This is only explaining them, their base form and their dictionary form. How to use them will come at a later time!

To be blunt and honest, verbs are, in my opinion, the most difficult thing to master of the Japanese language. Don't be scared though, I'll be taking you one step at a time and (hopefully) make things easy to understand and learn. So let's get to it!

Looking at all the verbs I've posted, I'm sure some of you have noticed a trend. (If not, that's fine.) All of the verbs end in an 'u'. You might have noticed that all the 'ru' verbs end in 'ru'. Well, that's where the name came from c: The 'u' verbs are verbs that can end in things other, but not excluding, 'ru'. This could be 'ku', 'mu', 'bu', 'u' (just itself), etc. An 'u' or 'ru' is added on to the verb base ('ik' as an example from 'iku' or 'tabe' for 'taberu') which gives them their appropriate dictionary form (explained below).

I did mention that 'u' verbs can have a 'ru' ending which can be tricky seeing as how all 'ru' verbs end with that as well. There is no way to tell these apart other than memorization. With practice and learning conjugations, it becomes easier to remember them and tell them apart from each other.

--Side Note--
By learning the conjugations of 'u' and 'ru' verbs, I can see a verb and say it in 'masu' form (seen in the next tutorial) and figure out right away which it is. This isn't always the case, but it has happened and has saved me on more than one occasion!
--End Side Note--

The first thing to learn is that when approaching new verbs, you learn it's "dictionary form". They are often called this because dictionaries use this form (pretty simple, no?). This is the verb base + 'u' or 'ru' (as explained above).

The "dictionary form" of a verb is also known as the "short form" since it can also be used in informal situations. The word "short" most likely comes from the fact that informalities in Japanese often make words or sentences shorter. The case is the opposite for formalities in which the words or sentences are longer (sometimes double in size depending on how formal you are being).

The dictionary form is one way of saying the present affirmative of the verb.