Tenses in Japanese language

Present and future tense

The present and future tense are formed by using the rentaikei conjugation. Japanese does not have a separate future tense, so whether a sentence is present or future tense depends on the context.

犬が吠える。(Inu ga hoeru.)
The dog barks.

明日、行く。(Ashita, iku.)
I will leave tomorrow.

Past tense

The past tense is constructed by adding た (ta) to the ren'youkei conjugation. This combination results in several contractions. Please refer to the ren'youkei + た (ta) page for more details.

犬が吠えった。(Inu ga hoetta.)
The dog barked.

寒かった。(Samukatta.)
It was cold.

The gerund

The gerund is formed by combining the ～て (-te) form with いる (iru). The ren'youkei + て (te) undergoes the same contractions as the ren'youkei + た (ta). Please see the ren'youkei + て (te) page for more details.

犬が吠えっている。(Inu ga hoette iru.)
The dog is barking.

犬が吠えっていった。(Inu ga hoette itta.)
The dog was barking.

Note: When combined with the negative form the gerund adopts a special function.

ご飯はまだ食べていない。(Go-han wa mada tabete inai.)
I have not had dinner yet.

ご飯はまだ食べていなかった。(Go-han wa mada tabete inakatta.)
I had not had dinner yet.

When the ～て (-te) form is combined with いる (iru) the い (i) is often dropped in the spoken language.

犬が吠えってる。(Inu ga hoetteru.) The dog is barking.

ご飯はまだ食べてなかった。(Go-han wa mada tabetenakatta.)
I had not had dinner yet.

The perfect

The perfect is formed by combining the ～て (-te) form with ある (aru) for transitive verbs and by combining the ～て (-te) form with いる (iru) for intransitive verbs.

手紙が書いてある。(Tegami ga kaite aru.)
The letter has been written.

車が止まっている。(Kuruma ga tomatte iru.)
The car has stopped.

Note: Since the letter is now the subject, it is followed by the subject particle が (ga).

The pluperfect/past perfect

The perfect is formed by combining the ～て (-te) form with あった (atta) for transitive verbs and by combining the ～て (-te) form with いった (itta) for intransitive verbs.

手紙が書いてあった。(Tegami ga kaite atta.)
The letter had been written.

車が止まっていった。(Kuruma ga tomatte itta.)
The car had stopped.

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