QUICK AND DIRTY GUIDE TO JAPANESE GRAMMAR

VERB CONJUGATIONS
Another thing that many Japanese learners need is an easy method of arriving at all the verb conjugations and a highly reduced set of rules for how to get them right on the different types of verbs. That's easy enough really because there are only three major verb types:

    -ru verbs (GROUP II)
    -u verbs (GROUP I)
    IRREGULAR and -aru verbs (a polite type not much used except for "gozaru/gozaimasu"). People really hate Eleanor Jordan for this kind of naming, but in language learning you take what's easy and go with it; there's no need to worry about theoretical linguistics here.

    Also note that I changed romanization styles at this point to one that makes the changes in verbs appear much more uniform.
-Ru verbs (GROUP II) are those that end in -ru like taberu and ireru.
-U verbs (GROUP I) end in u, ku, gu, bu, mu, nu, su, tu, or [a,i,u,o]+ru (rarely e+ru because those are almost always -ru verbs like taberu. I only know of three like that:
    keru/kick,
    heru/decrease
    heru/elapse

--there are probably more, but I have a feeling they would also only be two syllables like these). So the only real overlap worth worrying about is "i+ru". If you memorize two forms for each of these (like: ireru/irete and hairu/haitte) you can keep them straight.

-Ru Verbs (GROUP II)
Everything's done by dropping or replacing -ru with something else. Just remember the different uses of each conjugation. For example, with taberu (to eat), drop -ru to add:
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-masu present/future tense, e.g., tabemasu: [I] eat.

-yasui (easy to): tabeyasui (easy to eat))

-te gerund: e.g., tabete (gerund is for "and"-ing verbs (eat and go, "tabete iku") and simple orders (eat that, "are tabete")

-ta for past tense: tabeta

-tara for meaning "if": tabetara (if I/someone eats)

-tari for meaning "do things like": tabetari (I did things like eating--tabetari sita. not used much)

-reba for another "if": tabereba (if I/someone eats. A little different from -tara but don't worry about that now, they're pretty much interchangeable.)

-yoo for "let's": tabeyoo (let's eat)

-ro for rude orders: tabero (Eat, dammit!)

-nai for negative: tabenai ([He] doesn't eat.)

-rareru for "can": taberareru <- these are now -ru verbs (I can't eat this! kore taberarenai yo! Good in cafeteria's.)

-saseru for "make (someone) do": tabesaseru <- now a -ru verb ("Kore tabesasenai de yo!" Don't make me eat this. A negative request equal in level to "tabete" is "nai" plus "de")

-rareru for passive "was X-ed": taberareru <- now a -ru verb (looks exactly like "can" for this type verb. "Raion ni tabesaserareta." I was eaten by a lion. Use "ni" for "by" to show the agent.)

-saserareru for "be made to": tabesaserareru (this follows from just putting two separate types above together. My mom made me eat chicken. "Okaasan ni chikin wo tabesaserareta." Putting it in passive makes you seem like you didn't want to and you feel sorry for yourself.)

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-U VERBS (GROUP I)

IRREGULAR VERBS

ADJECTIVES

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*-masu*	present/future tense, e.g., tabemasu: [I] eat.
*-yasui*	(easy to): tabeyasui (easy to eat))
*-te*	gerund: e.g., tabete (gerund is for "and"-ing verbs (eat and go, "tabete iku") and simple orders (eat that, "are tabete")
*-ta*	for past tense: tabeta
*-tara*	for meaning "if": tabetara (if I/someone eats)
*-tari*	for meaning "do things like": tabetari (I did things like eating--tabetari sita. not used much)
*-reba*	for another "if": tabereba (if I/someone eats. A little different from -tara but don't worry about that now, they're pretty much interchangeable.)
*-yoo*	for "let's": tabeyoo (let's eat)
*-ro*	for rude orders: tabero (Eat, dammit!)
*-nai*	for negative: tabenai ([He] doesn't eat.)
*-rareru*	for "can": taberareru <- these are now -ru verbs (I can't eat this! kore taberarenai yo! Good in cafeteria's.)
*-saseru*	for "make (someone) do": tabesaseru <- now a -ru verb ("Kore tabesasenai de yo!" Don't make me eat this. A negative request equal in level to "tabete" is "nai" plus "de")
*-rareru*	for passive "was X-ed": taberareru <- now a -ru verb (looks exactly like "can" for this type verb. "Raion ni tabesaserareta." I was eaten by a lion. Use "ni" for "by" to show the agent.)
*-saserareru*	for "be made to": tabesaserareru (this follows from just putting two separate types above together. My mom made me eat chicken. "Okaasan ni chikin wo tabesaserareta." Putting it in passive makes you seem like you didn't want to and you feel sorry for yourself.)