The most common Japanese verbs and how to use them

Nouns are where vocabulary lists get big, but verbs are where sentences get built. In any language a small core of verbs does an outsized share of the work, and Japanese is no exception: the eighty or so verbs below will carry you through ordinary conversation, and most of them appear in the first months of study. What makes them worth a dedicated guide is not the list itself — it's that a dozen of them behave in ways that quietly contradict English intuitions. Japanese uses two different verbs for "there is", takes が where English takes an object, splits "wear" four ways by body part, and cares intensely about which direction a gift travels. Get the list first, then get the traps.

1. Why the verb core is small — and worth learning first

Japanese sentences can drop almost everything except the verb. The subject vanishes when it's obvious, objects vanish when they're recoverable from context, and pronouns are avoided wherever possible. 食べた。(たべた) is a complete, natural sentence meaning "[I] ate [it]". This means the verb carries not just the action but also, through its ending, the tense, the politeness level, negation, and whether the speaker is requesting, permitting, guessing or reporting. One verb, correctly conjugated, can be an entire utterance.

The payoff is that verbs give you the highest return per word learned. A hundred nouns let you name a hundred things; a hundred verbs let you say a hundred things happened, will happen, didn't happen, might happen, should happen, and please could they happen. If you are early in your studies and forced to choose what to drill, drill verbs — and drill them alongside the endings from verb conjugation basics, because an uninflected verb is a dictionary entry, not language.

The tables that follow group verbs by what you'd be talking about, not alphabetically, because that's how you'll retrieve them. Each row gives the kanji spelling, the reading, the English sense, and the conjugation group. Three groups exist: godan (also called u-verbs or Group 1), ichidan (ru-verbs, Group 2), and the two irregulars, する and 来る. Watch the group column carefully on verbs like 帰る and 入る — they end in -eru and -iru but conjugate as godan, and that mismatch is one of the most persistent sources of conjugation errors.

2. Existence and motion

Two notes before you move on. 行く is the one verb whose て-form breaks the pattern: by rule it should be ×行いて, but the actual form is 行って (いって), and the past is 行った. Memorise it as an exception now and save yourself years of small corrections. And 乗る takes に, not を — 電車に乗ります (でんしゃに のります), "I get on the train" — while 降りる takes を for the thing you leave: 電車を降ります.

3. Daily actions

死ぬ is a curiosity worth knowing: it is the only verb in ordinary modern Japanese ending in ぬ. 住む and 会う both take に rather than を — 東京に住んでいます (とうきょうに すんでいます), "I live in Tokyo"; 友達に会いました (ともだちに あいました), "I met a friend". And 遊ぶ does not mean "play" in the English instrumental or sporting senses: you play the piano with ピアノを弾く (ひく) and play football with サッカーをする. 遊ぶ is what children do and what adults do on a Saturday night.

4. Communication and perception

聞く is doing two jobs and beginners regularly miss the second one. 音楽を聞きます (おんがくを ききます) is "I listen to music", but 先生に聞きます (せんせいに ききます) is "I'll ask the teacher" — the に marks the person you're asking. Also distinguish 見る from 見える (みえる, "to be visible") and 聞く from 聞こえる (きこえる, "to be audible"): 山が見えます (やまが みえます) means the mountain is there in your field of vision, not that you chose to look at it.

5. Thinking and knowing

思う and 考える are not interchangeable. 思う is an opinion or impression that you hold — いい映画だと思います (いい えいがだと おもいます), "I think it's a good film". 考える is active mental processing, closer to "think about" or "work out" — よく考えてから決めます (よく かんがえてから きめます), "I'll decide after thinking it over carefully". A stray 考えます where 思います belongs makes you sound like you are about to start calculating.

6. Getting, giving and paying

借りる and 貸す are a classic mix-up because English "rent" covers both directions. 友達に本を借りました (ともだちに ほんを かりました) is "I borrowed a book from a friend"; 友達に本を貸しました is "I lent a book to a friend". Note that both take に for the other person — the direction lives entirely in the verb, which is a recurring theme in this section and the reason the giving verbs get their own treatment below.

7. Handling things

する deserves special mention because it is a vocabulary multiplier rather than just a verb. Attach it to a Sino-Japanese noun and you get a verb: 勉強する (べんきょうする, to study), 運転する (うんてんする, to drive), 電話する (でんわする, to phone), 掃除する (そうじする, to clean), 結婚する (けっこんする, to marry), 説明する (せつめいする, to explain), 予約する (よやくする, to reserve). Every one of those nouns you learn is also a verb you already know how to conjugate, since する is irregular in exactly one predictable way (します, して, した). This is the cheapest vocabulary in the language.

8. The verbs that don't behave like their English translations

ある and いる — the animacy split

Japanese has two verbs for "there is", chosen by whether the thing is alive and self-moving. いる is for people and animals: 猫がいます (ねこが います), "there's a cat"; 部屋に誰かいます (へやに だれか います), "someone's in the room". ある is for objects, plants, and abstractions: 本があります (ほんが あります), "there's a book"; 木があります (きが あります), "there's a tree"; 会議があります (かいぎが あります), "there's a meeting".

The boundary catches people out on vehicles. A parked car is an object — 車があります. But once a person is driving it, the sentence tends to be about the person or the arrival, and you'll hear タクシーが来ました (タクシーが きました). Possession follows animacy too: 友達がいます (ともだちが います) is "I have friends", literally "friends exist", while 時間があります (じかんが あります) is "I have time". Note the が in all of these — existence sentences mark the existing thing with が, and the location with に.

One conjugation warning: ある is a godan verb with an irregular negative. "There isn't" is ありません or plain ない — never ×あらない. いる is perfectly regular ichidan: いません, いない.

分かる takes が, not を

This is the single most common particle error among English speakers, because "I understand Japanese" looks like it has an object. In Japanese it doesn't: 日本語が分かります (にほんごが わかります). 分かる is closer to "becomes clear" than to "comprehend" — the thing understood is the subject of its own clarity, not the target of your action. So ×日本語を分かります is wrong, and the same が pattern governs a whole family of predicates: 好き (すき, like), 嫌い (きらい, dislike), 上手 (じょうず, good at), 下手 (へた, bad at), 欲しい (ほしい, want), and the potential forms of verbs — 日本語が話せます (にほんごが はなせます), "I can speak Japanese". If this whole area feels slippery, the particles guide is the right companion piece.

知っている vs 分かる

知る is a change-of-state verb: it means "to come to know", the moment of acquiring information. The state of already knowing is therefore the ている form. "I know" is 知っています, never ×知ります — the plain 知ります would mean "I will find out". The negative flips back: "I don't know" is 知りません, not 知っていません.

分かる, meanwhile, is comprehension rather than possession of a fact. The two can appear in the same sentence and stay distinct: 名前は知っていますが、どんな人か分かりません (なまえは しって いますが、どんな ひとか わかりません) — "I know his name, but I don't know what kind of person he is." One more nuance worth having: 分かりました is the standard "understood, got it" when someone explains something, because it reports the moment the understanding landed. Answering 分かっています instead ("I already know that") is grammatical but can come across as impatient.

Four verbs for "wear"

Japanese chooses the verb by which part of the body is involved, so "wear" splits into several unrelated words:

• 着る (きる, ichidan) — torso and whole-body garments: シャツを着る, コートを着る, 着物を着る (きものを きる).
• 履く (はく, godan) — anything you put on legs or feet: ズボンを履く, スカートを履く, 靴を履く (くつを はく), 靴下を履く (くつしたを はく).
• かぶる (godan) — things that go over the head: 帽子をかぶる (ぼうしを かぶる).
• かける (ichidan) — glasses: 眼鏡をかける (めがねを かける). And する covers small accessories: ネクタイをする, 時計をする (とけいを する).

One more thing English gets wrong here: "he is wearing a coat" is a state, not an action, so it needs ている — コートを着ています. Saying コートを着ます describes the act of putting it on, which is a different sentence entirely. The same ている-as-state logic applies to 持っている (to have), 住んでいる (to live somewhere) and 知っている (to know) — a small pattern that quietly unlocks a lot of natural-sounding Japanese.

あげる, くれる and もらう — direction matters

English uses "give" regardless of who ends up holding the thing. Japanese picks the verb based on which way the gift travels relative to the speaker:

• あげる — the gift moves away from me (or from my side) to someone else. 私は妹にプレゼントをあげました。(わたしは いもうとに プレゼントを あげました) — "I gave my little sister a present."
• くれる — the gift moves toward me. 友達が私に本をくれました。(ともだちが わたしに ほんを くれました) — "My friend gave me a book." You cannot use あげる here; ×友達が私に本をあげました is wrong, and the mistake is instantly noticeable.
• もらう — the same event told from the receiver's side. 私は友達に本をもらいました。(わたしは ともだちに ほんを もらいました) — "I received a book from my friend."

These three then extend to favours by attaching to a て-form, which is how Japanese expresses gratitude and obligation grammatically rather than with extra words. 手伝ってくれてありがとう (てつだって くれて ありがとう) — "thanks for helping me". 友達に写真を撮ってもらいました (ともだちに しゃしんを とって もらいました) — "I had a friend take a photo [for me]". Once you're speaking with people above you in status, the same three verbs have polite replacements — 差し上げる, くださる and いただく — which the keigo guide covers in detail.

Transitive and intransitive pairs

Japanese systematically pairs a verb meaning "X does it to something" with a separate verb meaning "it happens". English usually reuses one word ("the door opens" / "I open the door"); Japanese changes the verb and the particle. The transitive member takes を, the intransitive takes が:

• ドアを開けます (あけます, I open the door) / ドアが開きます (あきます, the door opens)
• 窓を閉めます (まどを しめます) / 窓が閉まります (しまります)
• 授業を始めます (じゅぎょうを はじめます) / 授業が始まります (はじまります)
• 電気を消します (でんきを けします) / 電気が消えます (きえます)
• 車を止めます (くるまを とめます) / 車が止まります (とまります)

There is no single rule that generates one member from the other, but there are recurring shapes — -eru against -aru (閉める/閉まる, 始める/始まる), -su against -eru (消す/消える, 出す/出る) — and once you have met a dozen pairs the patterns start predicting each other. Learn them in pairs from the start rather than meeting the second half a year later as a stranger.

行く and 来る point at the speaker

If someone calls you from the next room and you are about to walk over, English says "I'm coming" but Japanese says 今行きます (いま いきます). 来る describes movement toward where the speaker currently is; since you are leaving your own position, the verb is 行く. Getting this backwards is one of the most audible learner errors, and it takes about five minutes to fix once you notice it. Related: 帰る means returning to a home base — your house, your country, your hometown — whereas 戻る (もどる) is a neutral "go back" to any place you came from.

9. Where these sit on the JLPT, and how to drill them

Almost everything in tables 2 and 3 — ある, いる, 行く, 来る, 食べる, 飲む, 見る, 聞く, 書く, 読む, 買う, する — is core N5 material, appearing in the first textbook chapters and in the earliest exam papers. The transitive/intransitive pairs, the giving verbs and 知っている are typically N4 territory, where the exam starts testing not just the word but the particle and the direction. By N3 the assumption is that all of the above is automatic, and the focus shifts to compound verbs and nuance: 〜出す, 〜始める, 〜続ける attached to other verb stems.

For drilling, three things work noticeably better than reading the list again:

1. Conjugate in sets, not one by one. Take six verbs from one table and run all of them through the same five forms — ます, ない, て, た, potential. Doing 開ける・閉める・始める・入れる・見せる・教える together makes the ichidan pattern obvious in a way that six separate sessions never will.
2. Learn each verb with its particle attached. Store 電車に乗る, not 乗る. Store 友達に会う, not 会う. The particle is part of the word for practical purposes, and separating them creates errors you then have to unlearn.
3. Say a real sentence for every verb. One sentence about your actual day, out loud. 七時に起きました。電車に乗りました。友達に会いました。 It takes two minutes and it converts recognition into production, which is the gap most study methods leave open.

The verbs on this page sit inside the site's Basic 1,500-word set and the JLPT set of 2,904 words, so you can meet them in context rather than on their own: run a study session on a beginner set, keep the ones that slip in your review deck, and read every unfamiliar reading aloud off the card as you go. Free to use, and the whole list above is a few weeks of steady work rather than a mountain.