I recently reached the chapter in Minna no Nihongo where we start conjugating verbs. It says that in verbs that have き before the -ます ending, the きturns into い. 行きます is an exception as it becomes 行って. 起きます wasn’t mentioned as an exception and I expected it to become 起いて, but it’s conjugated as 起きて. Is there an explanation for this or am I missing something?
8 comments
行く て form is irregular I think
起きる is the dictionary form of that word and it’s an ichidan verb so the て form of an ichidan verb is formed by swapping the る with て.
起き is the stem of the verb and the る (or ます, for this particular example) is the suffix.
Verbs that end with the sounds “iru” and “eru”, like “きる” for example, are, with regards to some exceptions, called Godan verbs.
As for Godan verbs, any conjugation is simply replacing that る suffix. Therefore, the て-form of 起きる is 起きて.
Your conjugation is correct for an Ichidan, the other class of verbs, verb that ends with く, for example 聞く, which conjugates as 聞いて.
It’s 起きて.
I’d like to take this opportunity to say that learning verbs that way might make things more difficult. Try learning them from the dictionary form first. You’ll see that it helps to avoid confusion like this.
起きる is the dictionary form. It’s called an “ichidan” verb or “ru-verb”. The て form for such verbs is formed by simply replacing the final る with て. 起きる→起きて.
The ます form for such verbs is also formed by removing the る, and replacing it with ます. 起きる→起きます.
All dictionary-form verbs end with a kana from the う group. Any verb not ending with る is called a “godan” verb or “u-verb”. However, many, but not all verbs ending with る are the ichidan/ru-verb type that I mentioned before. There are ways to guess whether or not it’s ichidan, but in the beginning stages of learning, it’s best to just learn which is which by heart. It’s not all that hard once you get used to it.
When conjugating godan verbs ending with く into ます form, it turns into き. く ending verbs become 〜いて in the て form.
Now you can see that 起きます certainly has き before the ます, but not because it started from く. It’s that way because the る at the end of the word coming after き was removed to make way for ます. 起き is just part of what’s called the “verb stem”, which is also called the pre-ます form, meaning it’s what the verb looks like in ます form, minus the ます. In the case of ichidan verbs, it’s just the part of the verb that’s left after the る is removed.
I hope this clears things up.
Do NOT start with the masu form and expect to be able to conjugate verbs. This is a very annoying thing that they do with beginners to make sure we’re polite little robots when we first arrive.
Learn the citation form of the verb, 起きる, first, then it’s not as surprising that る becomes て directly.
This *does* have a problem of its own: there are ichidan and godan verbs (as a linguist i like to say vowel-stem and consonant-stem, but that might just be me), and る is a verb ending in both of them. if the vowel before ru is a, o, u, it is godan and you get って. ~~if the vowel before ru is e, it is ichidan and you get て~~. but if the vowel is i or e, you could have either. okiru is ichidan.
So actually if you didn’t know if the verb is ichidan or godan, starting from okiru you get either okite or okitte; starting from okimasu you get either oku>oite (which is a different verb) or okiru>okite. So maybe if you learn at least two parts to each verb you know how to make the third.
Btw disregard 行く, it’s irregular.
You will have to learn the citation form in order to do anything more complicated than simple declarative sentences – any form of relative clause or reported speech, for example, and te/ta forms make more sense that way as you’re finding now. So best to learn now and not try to do it the way some of the textbooks try to get you to do it where you have to back-form the citation form from the masu form.
Learning to conjugate from ます form is going to make this harder. You should start with dictionary form instead.
て form is conjugated like this:
– Group 1 verbs: 行く 行って、聞く 聞いて。
– Group 2 verbs: 起きる 起きて、食べる 食べて。
– Group 3 verbs: する して、くる きて。
行く is not an exception, and the rule of き becoming い isn’t a true rule, nor one you should try to follow.
The reason 起きる can’t be 起いて is because the き is a part of the verb that never changes. For 行きます, the き is part of what changes (行く、行かない、行きます、行って) but for 起きます, the き doesn’t change (起きる、起きない、起きます、起きて). Comparing these two verbs isn’t advisable, since they are from different groups. Group 1 and group 2 verbs are conjugated differently.
Here are some examples:
Group 1 (the kanji stays the same, and the following hiragana changes depending on the form)
– 書く、書きます、書いて、書かない
– 待つ、待ちます、待って、待たない
– 飲む、飲みます、飲んで、飲まない
– 行く、行きます、行って、行かない *
Group 2 (the ending る is replaced by other form endings)
– 見る、見ます、見て、見ない
– 食べる、食べます、食べて、食べない
– 寝る、寝ます、寝て、寝ない
– 起きる、起きます、起きて、起きない *
Group 3 (exceptions)
– する、します、して、しない
– くる、きます、きて、こない
( * you can see here that the き in 行きます and 起きます are treated quite differently )
Hope this helps!
起きる is an 一段(ichidan) verb, meaning it’sて form is 起きて. to get the て form of any ichidan verb, you replace る with て.
however, 行く is a 五段(godan) verb, and here it gets trickier:
|last kana of base form|ending in て|
|–:|:–|
|う|って|
|く|いて|
|ぐ|いで|
|す|して|
|つ|って|
|ぬ|んで|
|ぶ|んで|
|む|んで|
|る|って|
to memorize to which group a verb belongs, you should learn two forms of it: the base form, and the て form.
also here is a very good chart to help you conjugate: http://cghq.net/japanese/verbs/AMB_Japanese_Verbs.pdf
Do you know jisho ken? Dictionary form of verbs?
End: = conjunction:
う,つ,る = て
ぶ,む,ぬ = んで
く= いて
ぐ=いで
す= して
If you sing it to the tune of silver bells you’ll never forget the conjunction.
🎶Utsurute
Bumununde
Kuite
Gu I de
Sushite are the te and ta bases 🎶
Utsuruta
Bumununda
Kuita
Guida
Sushita
Are the te and ta forms🎶
ありがとうバンガーター先生。まだうたを使います。
There are genera rule forl jishoken=>formal conjunction too, but I forget the details at the moment.