Dictionary form and plain style
The dictionary form (飲む, 食べる, する) is the bare verb, and with it comes the plain style, used with friends and in almost everything written that is not a letter. Its four boxes: 飲む, 飲まない, 飲んだ, 飲まなかった. Beyond register, the plain form is compulsory inside a sentence even when the ending is polite: 飲むと思います, 飲む前に, 飲んだ後で. That is the usual mistake, putting ます in the middle: 飲みますと思います does not exist. The plain negative of group 1 comes from shifting the last syllable to the あ row and adding ない: 書く → 書かない; and 買う → 買わない, not 買あない.
Where this sits
- Comes after
- Verbs: ます, negative and past
Exercises from this rung
Generated by the app, from easiest to hardest
日本に行った___がありますか。
- の
- もの
- とき
- こと
Why たことがある is accumulated experience, not the simple past. 日本に行きました says you went; 行ったことがあります says you know Japan. こと turns a verb into an abstract noun.
easier明日は雨が___でしょう。
- 降る
- 降った
- 降ります
- 降って
Why でしょう rests on the plain form and expresses a forecast. It is the weather-report formula, and with a rising tone it also seeks the listener's agreement.
in between（友達に）明日、映画を___？
- 見る
- 見て
- 見ました
- 見ます
Why Among friends the plain style is used and the question is marked by intonation alone, with no か. Using ます with a close friend sounds distant, like addressing a sibling formally.
harder