Politeness Levels

Question 1

ます (masu) form

Answer 1

This is a polite non-past verbs in Japanese!

Japanese has 2 verb tenses: past and non-past. Non-past indicates both present and future. This means that the same sentence often has two possible translations. You can understand if it is being used for the present or future by the context of the sentence.

Affirmative form: ます (masu)
Ex: ジュースをのみます; “jūsu o nomimasu”
It can mean either “I drink juice” (present)
or “I will drink juice” (future), depending on the context of the sentence.

Negative form: ません (masen)
Ex: ジュースをのみません; “jūsu o nomimasen”
It can mean either “I don’t drink juice” (present)
or “I will not drink juice” (future), depending on the context of the sentence.

Question 2

ます (masu) form: RU verbs (ending in “iru” and “eru”)

Answer 2

Drop る and add ます

たべる (to eat) ー たべます
みる (to watch) ー みます

Question 3

ます (masu) form: U verbs (all other verbs)

Answer 3

Change the last “u” hiragana to the “i” hiragana and add ます

よむ (to read) - よみます
のむ (to drink) - のみます
いく (to go) - いきます
きく (to listen) - ききます

Question 4

ます (masu) form: Irregular verbs

Answer 4

Memorize the ます form

する (to do) ー します
くる (to come) ー きます