Verbs
Verb Categories
There are a few different, highly overlapping, ways of categorizing Japanese verbs. Note that some of these categories apply to a verb in all cases (such as transitive and intransitive), and some only apply to particular cases (such as volitional).
Stative Verbs vs Active Verbs
Stative verbs indicate existance and indicate continuity.(要る,できる) A verb whose base form is stative generally does not combine with the auxiliary -iru, although there are exceptions.
Active verbs refer to a single event. (such as 打つ or 知る) They usually will combine with the auxiliary -iru for a variety of meanings depending on more specific classifications.
Continual verbs vs Punctual Verbs
In general, the auxiliary -iru can add three different meanings:
- Continuity : The action is still in-progress
- Punctuality : The action is repeated on a regular basis (the base verb form ALSO can have this interpretation)
- Resultative State : The action has been completed, and the state has been maintained.
Continual verbs can be extended with the auxiliary -iru to indicate continuity. (食べる) This description leaves the Punctual or Resultative interpretations as valid.
When extended with -iru, Punctual verbs indicate either repeated actions or a resultative state after an action (知る, 打つ), the term "Punctual verb" seems to exclude the continuative interpretation.
Non-volitional Verbs vs Volitional Verbs
Sometimes this is called "[-self-controllable]", as opposed to "[+self-controllable]". Volitional verbs are those that a subject can choose to embark on, rather than passive states or actions that are involuntary. Some constructs restrict whether volitional verbs can be used in them or not. This has nothing to do with the verbal conjugation that is often called the "volitional" (~ましょう).
Whether a verb is volitional or not can depend on context. Examples such as 投げる, 行く, and 知る are often volitional. While わかる, 見える, and most passive conjugations are generally non-volitional.
Movement Verbs
Verbs that indicate movement. This classification mostly exists to clarify which verbs use the を particle in a slightly different way. Examples include 行く、走る、散歩する.
Transitive 他動詞{たどうし} vs Intransitive 自動詞{じどうし} Verbs
Does the verb have a direct object? or not? Note that a handful of verbs may be intransitive and transitive with the same word.
Conjugation
Conjugation Group
This is a simple thing, but they're called by so many different names that it's nice to have a cross-reference guide.
- Group I = 五段{ごだん} = "u-verbs" = consonant stem = "v5x" (where x indicates the category)
- Group II = 一段{いちだん} = "ru-verbs" = vowel stem = "v1"
- Group III = 変格{へんかく} = "irregular" (くる and する)
Note that there are some special cases (like ござる) which different classification systems put in different categories.
Stems
- 辞書形{じしょけい} - -u - "Dictionary form" or 基本形{きほんけい} "Plain form"
- 終止形{しゅうしけい} - "Terminal form" (plain form used at the end of a sentence)
- 連体形{れんたいけい} - "Attributive form" or "adnominal form" (plain form used before a noun as a modifier)
- 連用形{れんようけい} - -i - Vmasu - "Continuative form" - (Conjunctive, stem of the ~masu form)
- 中止形{ちゅうしけい} - Continuative form used as a conjunction
- 未然形{みぜんけい} - -a/o - Vneg - "Irrealis form" - (Negative stem)
- 仮定形{かていけい} - -e - "Hypothetical form" (called 已然形{いぜんけい} "Realis form" in literary Japanese)
- 命令形{めいれいけい} - -e - "Imperative form" or "Command form"
To avoid repeating information that is generally available on the web, for more details of Japanese verbal conjugation, consult wikipedia, particular Aaron Buchanan's excellent verb chart
