| The potential form is used to describe that something is possible
or that you are capable of doing something.
The short potential form
The ren'youkei + える (eru) is the short potential form and can only
be used with group 4 (or yodan katsuyou) verbs.
This combination has a contraction where the final "i"
from the ren'youkei form is dropped.
The contraction works as follows:
買い (kai = ren'youkei) → 買い+える(kai
+eru) → 買える (kaeru = short potential
form)
| Ren'youkei |
Ren'youkei + える (eru) |
| 買い |
(kai) |
買える |
(kaeru) |
| 書き |
(kaki) |
書ける |
(kakeru) |
| 泳ぎ |
(oyogi) |
泳げる |
(oyogeru) |
| 出し |
(dashi) |
出せる |
(daseru) |
| 待ち |
(machi) |
待てる |
(materu) |
| 死に |
(shini) |
死ねる |
(shineru) |
| 遊び |
(asobi) |
遊べる |
(asoberu) |
| 飲み |
(nomi) |
飲める |
(nomeru) |
| 入り |
(hairi) |
入れる |
(haireru) |
The addition える (eru) comes from the verb 得る (eru), meaning "to
acquire". The combination of 書く (kaku), meaning "to write",
and 得る (eru), meaning "to acquire", would translate to
"to acquire the writing" or "to be able to write".
When adding 得る (eru), a group 2 verb, to the ren'youkei the resulting
verbs are also conjugated as group 2 verbs. For the correct conjugations
please check the conjugations page.
| |
日本でアメリカの車を買えますか。 (Nihon de Amerika no
kuruma wo kaemasu ka.)
Can you buy American cars in Japan?
ペンがあったら書けた。 (Pen ga attara kaketa.)
If I had a pen I would have been able to write it. |
| |
There exist a few verbs where no contractions occur:
あり得る (arieru) and 起こり得る (okorieru)
| |
それがあり得ない! (Sore ga arienai!)
That can't be! / That's impossible!
君にも起こり得る。 (Kimi ni mo okorieru.)
It can happen to you too. |
| |
The long potential form
The long potential form is created by placing ことができる (koto
ga dekiru) after the rentaikei conjugation. This construction can
be used with both group 2 (nidan katsuyou) and group 4 (yodan katsuyou)
verbs.
| |
箸で食べることができます。
(Hashi de taberu koto ga dekimasu.)
I can eat with chopsticks.
日本語もアラビア語も書くことできます。
(Nihongo mo Arabiago mo kaku koto dekimasu.)
I can write both Japanese and Arabic. |
| |
NOTE: In the spoken
language particles are sometimes left out, as shown in the second
example.
The passive form
The potential passive form is constructed in the same way as the
normal passive form, but the grammatical subject of the sentence
is usually separated by the particle は (wa). This form is often
used to create a potential form from group 2 (or nidan katsuyou)
verbs.
| |
ユーフォーが見られる! (yuufoo ga mirareru!)
I can see a UFO! |
| |
Related pages:
Ren'youkei
+える (eru)
Mizenkei
+られる (rareru)
Passive
forms |
