Potential Form
Expressing the ability to do something
In Japanese, the
ability to do a certain action is expressed by conjugating the verb rather than
adding a word such as the words "can" or "able to" in the
case of English. All verbs conjugated into the potential form become a ru-verb.
The Potential Form
Vocabulary
1. 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) - to see
2. 遊ぶ 【あそ・ぶ】 (u-verb) - to play
3. する (exception) - to do
4. 来る 【く・る】 (exception) - to come
5. 出来る 【で・き・る】 (ru-verb) - to be
able to do
6. 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) - to eat
7. 着る 【き・る】 (ru-verb) - to wear
8. 信じる 【しん・じる】 (ru-verb) - to
believe
9. 寝る 【ね・る】 (ru-verb) - to
sleep
10. 起きる 【お・きる】 (ru-verb) - to
wake; to occur
11. 出る 【で・る】 (ru-verb) - to come
out
12. 掛ける 【か・ける】 (ru-verb) - to hang
13. 調べる 【しら・べる】 (ru-verb) - to
investigate
14. 話す 【はな・す】 (u-verb) - to speak
15. 書く 【か・く】 (u-verb) - to write
16. 待つ 【ま・つ】 (u-verb) - to wait
17. 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) - to drink
18. 取る 【と・る】 (u-verb) - to take
19. 死ぬ 【し・ぬ】 (u-verb) - to die
20. 買う 【か・う】 (u-verb) - to buy
21. 漢字 【かん・じ】 - Kanji
22. 残念 【ざん・ねん】 (na-adj) -
unfortunate
23. 今週末 【こん・しゅう・まつ】 - this weekend
24. 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) - to go
25. もう - already
Once
again, the conjugation rules can be split into three major groups: ru-verbs, u-verbs, and exception verbs. However, the
potential form of the verb 「する」 (meaning "to do") is a special exception because it
becomes a completely different verb: 「できる」 （出来る）
Rules for creating potential form
·
For
ru-verbs: Replace the 「る」 with 「られる」.
Example: 見る → 見られる
·
For
u-verbs: Change the last
character from a / u / vowel sound to the equivalent / e / vowel sound and add 「る」.
Example: 遊ぶ → 遊べ → 遊べる
·
Exceptions:
1. 「する」 becomes 「できる」
2. 「くる」 becomes 「こられる」
※Remember that all potential verbs become ru-verbs.
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
It
is also possible to just add 「れる」 instead of the full 「られる」 for ru-verbs. For
example, 「食べる」 becomes 「食べれる」 instead of 「食べられる」. I suggest learning the official 「られる」 conjugation first because laziness can be a
hard habit to break and the shorter version, though common, is considered to be
slang.
Examples
1. 漢字は書けますか？
Can you write kanji?
2. 残念だが、今週末は行けない。
It's unfortunate, but can't go this weekend.
3. もう信じられない。
I can't believe it already.
Potential forms do not have direct objects
Vocabulary
1. 富士山 【ふ・じ・さん】 - Mt. Fuji
2. 登る 【のぼ・る】 (u-verb) - to climb
3. 重い 【おも・い】 (i-adj) - heavy
4. 荷物 【に・もつ】 - baggage
5. 持つ 【も・つ】 (u-verb) - to hold
The potential form
indicates that something is possible but no actual action is actually taken.
While the potential form remains a verb, since it is describing the state of
something you must not use the direct object 「を」 as you have done with regular verbs. For
example the following sentences are incorrect.
1. 富士山を登れた。
2. 重い荷物を持てます。
Here are the corrected
versions:
1. 富士山が登れた。
Was able to climb Fuji-san.
2. 重い荷物は持てます。
Am able to hold heavy baggage.
Are 「見える」 and 「聞こえる」 exceptions?
Vocabulary
1. 見える 【み・える】 (ru-verb) - to be
visible
2. 聞こえる 【き・こえる】 (ru-verb) - to be
audible
3. 今日 【きょう】 - today
4. 晴れる 【は・れる】 (ru-verb) - to be
sunny
5. 富士山 【ふ・じ・さん】 - Mt. Fuji
6. 友達 【とも・だち】 - friend
7. おかげ - thanks to
8. 映画 【えい・が】 - movie
9. ただ - free of charge; only
10. 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) - to see
11. こと - event, matter
12. 出来る 【で・き・る】 (ru-verb) - to be
able to do
13. 久しぶり 【ひさ・しぶり】 - after a long time
14. 彼 【かれ】 - he; boyfriend
15. 声 【こえ】 - voice
16. 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) - to ask; to listen
17. 周り 【まわ・り】 - surroundings
18. うるさい (i-adj) - noisy
19. 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) - to say
20. あまり／あんまり - not very (when used with negative)
There
are two verbs 「見える」 and 「聞こえる」 that mean that something is visible and
audible, respectively. When you want to say that you can see or hear something,
you'll want to use these verbs. If however, you wanted to say that you were
given the opportunity to see or hear something, you would use the regular
potential form. However, in this case, it is more common to use the type of
expression as seen in example 3.
Examples
1. 今日は晴れて、富士山が見える。
(It) cleared up today and Fuji-san is visible.
2. 友達のおかげで、映画はただで見られた。
Thanks to (my) friend, (I) was able to watch the movie
for free.
3. 友達のおかげで、映画をただで見ることができた。
Thanks to (my) friend, (I) was able to watch the movie
for free.
You
can see that example 3 uses the generic noun for an event to say literally,
"The event of seeing movie was able to be done." which essentially
means the same thing as 「見られる」. You can also just use generic noun
substitution to substitute for 「こと」.
1. 友達のおかげで、映画をただで見るのができた。
Here's
some more examples using 「聞く」, can you tell the difference? Notice that 「聞こえる」 always means "audible" and never
"able to ask".
1. 久しぶりに彼の声が聞けた。
I was able to hear his voice for the first time in a long time.
2. 周りがうるさくて、彼が言っていることがあんまり聞こえなかった。
The surroundings were noisy and I couldn't hear what he was saying very well.
「ある」, yet another exception
Vocabulary
1. そんな - that sort of
2. こと - event, matter
3. 有り得る 【あ・り・え・る／あ・り・う・る】 (ru-verb) - to
possibly exist
4. 彼 【かれ】 - he; boyfriend
5. 寝坊【ね・ぼう】 - oversleep
6. する (exception) - to do
7. それ - that
8. 話 【はなし】 - story
You
can say that something has a possibility of existing by combining 「ある」 and the verb 「得る」 to produce 「あり得る」. This essentially means 「あることができる」 except that nobody actually says that, they
just use 「あり得る」. This verb is very curious in that it can be
read as either 「ありうる」 or 「ありえる」,however; all the other conjugations such as 「ありえない」、「ありえた」、and 「ありえなかった」 only have one possible reading using 「え」.
Examples
1. そんなことはありうる。
That kind of situation/event is possible (lit: can exist).
2. そんなことはありえる。
That kind of situation/event is possible (lit: can exist).
3. そんなことはありえない。
That kind of situation/event is not possible (lit: cannot exist).
4. 彼が寝坊したこともありうるね。
It's also possible that he overslept. (lit: The event
that he overslept also possibly exists.)
5. それは、ありえない話だよ。
That's an impossible story/scenario. (lit: That
story/scenario cannot exist.)
