IRREGULAR VERBS
Most books say that there are only two irregular verbs
in all of Japanese: suru and kuru. You have to learn these
two separately, but they kind of make sense.
KURU
| kuru | "will come" or "comes often, everyday" |
| ki | to add "-masu", note that "-yasui" isn't used |
| kite | casual command: "come here" |
| kita | past tense: "someone came" |
| kitara | add ra to past tense:
"if/once someone comes", some connotation of "when" |
| kitari | add ri to past tense: "do things like come" |
| kureba | "if someone comes": no connotation of "when" |
| koyoo | "let's come" |
| koi | rude request: "come here you" |
| konai | negative: "won't come" or "doesn't come (very much)" |
| korareru | "can come" |
| kosaseru | "make (someone) come" |
| korareru | passive form |
| kosaserareru | "be made to come (by someone)" |
SURU
| suru | "will do", or "does (often, everyday, etc.)" |
| shi | to add "-masu", or "-yasui" |
| shite | casual command: "do this" |
| shita | past tense: "someone did" |
| shitara | add -ra to past tense.
"if(once) someone does", some connotation of "when" |
| X shitari | add -ri to past tense: "do things like doing X" |
| sureba | "if someone does": no connotation of "when" |
| X shiyoo | "let's do X" |
| shiro | rude request: "do this dammit" |
| shinai | negative: "won't do" or "doesn't do (very much)" |
| dekiru | really "seru": "can do"--"someone I can love": "ai seru hito" |
| saseru | "make (someone) do" |
| sareru | "be done (by someone)" |
| saserareru | "be made to do (by someone)" |
A cool trick to remember suru is that many of the
conjugations match what you would get if you conjugated a lone "su",
so it's kind of like "hanasu":
| HANASU | SURU |
| hanashita | shita |
| hanaseru | seru |
| hanasaseru | saseru |
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IKU
In fact, though, there's a third irregular verb: iku.
The reason is that unlike kiita for kiku, you
don't say iita, you say itta.
And you don't say iite, you say itte.
But it's regular in it's irregularity because it acts
like tsukuru for some weird reason.
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