# Godan vs ichidan

**URL:** <https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849>\
**Category:** Grammar\
**Created:** [September 9, 2020, 6:27pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849 "2020-09-09T18:27:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Stay\_coolXD](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/stay_coolxd/32/658252_2.png) [@Stay\_coolXD](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Stay_coolXD)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 6:27pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/1 "2020-09-09T18:27:05Z")

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I have question regarding verb conjugations. I am around 3(and half ) months since i started studying grammer seriously and these conjugations are worrying me about when verbs that end with い え get conjugated into て vs って  
All i know ichidan verbs are て  
Godan verbs are って  
Should i memorize that? Do i figure it out with experience later on?

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**Author:** ![NicoleIsEnough](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/nicoleisenough/32/87285_2.png) [@NicoleIsEnough](https://community.wanikani.com/u/NicoleIsEnough)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 6:28pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/2 "2020-09-09T18:28:48Z")

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Yes, unfortunately you need to memorize this somehow. There is no hard and fast rule to find out which of the verbs that end in え or い are godan or ichidan.

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**Author:** ![anon54313967](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@anon54313967](https://community.wanikani.com/u/anon54313967)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 6:29pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/3 "2020-09-09T18:29:07Z")

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> [@Stay\_coolXD](#):
>
> All i know ichidan verbs are て  
> Godan verbs are って

That’s incomplete. It misses いて、いで、んで、して for godan verbs.

Also most verbs that end in いる and える will be ichidan and there are not tons of commonly-used verbs that are godan with either ending so you can easy just memorize most of the common exceptions (帰る、走る、etc. being amongst these exceptions).

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**Author:** ![Stay\_coolXD](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/stay_coolxd/32/658252_2.png) [@Stay\_coolXD](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Stay_coolXD)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/4 "2020-09-09T18:33:20Z")

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Yes that is mistake from my side. I meant って and other conjugations

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**Author:** ![phyro](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/phyro/32/67275_2.png) [@phyro](https://community.wanikani.com/u/phyro)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/5 "2020-09-09T18:33:28Z")

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For verbs that end with る, you should check whether it’s ichidan or godan unless you can tell from a conjugation which it is. Ichidan verbs always go to just て, whereas godan verbs conjugate differently based on the last syllable. For る godan verbs, they will always go to って so that is correct. If you see that, you’ll know that verb is godan and thus the other conjugations will follow that pattern.

信じる (ichidan)  
信じて、信じた、信じない、信じます

語る (godan)  
語って、語った、語らない、語ります

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**Author:** ![anon54313967](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@anon54313967](https://community.wanikani.com/u/anon54313967)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/6 "2020-09-09T18:34:39Z")

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> [@phyro](#):
>
> For verbs that end with る, you should check whether it’s ichidan or godan unless you can tell from a conjugation which it is

Unless it ends in aru, oru, uru in which case they can’t be ichidan. It’s really only just remembering the ones with iru/eru that are godan which is a much smaller lift of the common verbs.

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**Author:** ![phyro](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/phyro/32/67275_2.png) [@phyro](https://community.wanikani.com/u/phyro)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/7 "2020-09-09T18:36:09Z")

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Right, but if you’re ever unsure it can’t hurt to check. Since OP seems confused about how to tell, the easiest way to know for sure is to check the dictionary.

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**Author:** ![PDotAlex](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/pdotalex/32/319655_2.png) [@PDotAlex](https://community.wanikani.com/u/PDotAlex)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/8 "2020-09-09T18:55:24Z")

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I feel like Cure Dolly came up with a decent way to remember which endings to use when:

UTSURU: う ,つ and る (which, unfortunately, doesn’t exclude everything ending in いる or える) lead to って  
NEW BOOM: ぬ, ぶ and む lead to んで  
QUITE/GUIDE: く and ぐ lead to いて and いで, respectively  
す leads to して, don’t remember if that one had a clever name

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**Author:** ![anon54313967](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@anon54313967](https://community.wanikani.com/u/anon54313967)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/9 "2020-09-09T18:58:42Z")

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> [@PDotAlex](#):
>
> る (which, unfortunately, doesn’t exclude everything ending in いる or える) lead to って

Which is why I much prefer the Misa way which instead of using う and る which is more ambiguous she just splits them between iru/eru and “other endings” because then you don’t have to worry about as many exceptions since there are maybe like a dozen? commonly-used verbs with iru/eru that are godan. That way if it ends in aru, oru, uru you don’t even have to think about it because you already know it must be godan because ichidan verbs can only end in iru/eru. Then you just memorize the smaller list of common exceptions like 帰る、走る、要る、入る、切る、etc.

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**Author:** ![alo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/alo/32/239506_2.png) [@alo](https://community.wanikani.com/u/alo)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/10 "2020-09-09T20:40:03Z")

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I think you and @PDotAlex are addressing different things. That list is helpful for finding the -て form if you already know a verb is godan.

The guideline about いる/える can help you figure out if it’s a godan verb in the first place since you only have to worry about those endings.

Both work together quite nicely. 😃

This is my (incomplete) list of about seven exceptions that I see often:

はいる  
入る

かぎる  
限る

はしる  
走る

きる  
切る

いる  
要る

しゃべる  
喋る

かえる  
帰る

しる  
知る

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**Author:** ![Belthazar](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/belthazar/32/4469_2.png) [@Belthazar](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Belthazar)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 10:02pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/11 "2020-09-09T22:02:50Z")

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> [@alo](#):
>
> This is my (incomplete) list of about seven exceptions that I see often:

The Seven Mysteries of Alo. Mystery number one: There’s eight of them. 😛

> [@alo](#):
>
> いる  
> 要る

To throw a small spanner in the works, OP: there’s a different いる (which is basically always written in kana, but the kanji is 居る) which is ichidan. You’ll learn to tell them apart with exposure.

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**Author:** ![Whologist](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/whologist/32/381621_2.png) [@Whologist](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Whologist)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 10:21pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/12 "2020-09-09T22:21:46Z")

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I don’t know if I’m just repeating what you already know or what others have said, but here’s my 🌈 attempt 🌈

**Ichidan Verbs:**  
In general, these are verbs that end in る, with the preceding sound being a い or an え sound

Examples: 食べる、かける、上げる

Sometimes depending on the source, you may hear them called “ru verbs” it’s the same thing under a different name. (Not as accurate as ichidan/godan though so best not to use it 🙂)

**Rules for Ichidan Verbs**  
Generally ichidan verbs are easy to conjugate. When making a verb stem, you just remove the る  
So for example: To make a word ます form (polite form), simple take the verb stem and add ます

食べる - 食べ - 食べます  
かける - かけ - かけます  
上げる - 上げ - 上げます

For て form of these, you simply remove the る once again and replace it with て  
食べて、かけて、上げて、etc. etc.

Now this is only a general rule, of course because it’s Japanese (and the language likes to be difficult! O:\<) there’s a bunch of exceptions lol. I think I saw some already list some exceptions.

If you go to [Jisho.org](http://Jisho.org) you can search up any verb to find if it’s a ichidan or godan verb, if you’re unsure.

**Godan verbs** are everything that aren’t the verbs we just talked about

Soooo  
verbs that end in  
る (but with a, o, u before it, and of course the exceptions with i and e)  
つ  
く  
う  
む  
ぬ (really one of the only verbs you’ll see with this are 死ぬ tbh I can’t think of others off the top of my head)  
ぶ

For these, to make a verb stem you change the last sound to a い sound  
So つ to ち、む to み, る to り, etc. etc.

And for て forms:  
る - って (Example: 切る - 切って)  
つ - んで (Example: 恵む - 恵んで)  
く - いて (Example: 呟く - 呟いて)  
ぐ - same as く but it’s いで (So like とぐ - といで)  
う - って (Example: 思う - 思って)  
む - んで (Example 住む - 住んで)  
ぬ - んで (死ぬ - 死んで )  
ぶ - んで (転ぶ - 転んで )  
す - して (話す - 話して)

The two main exceptions I can think of on the top of my head are  
する - します, して  
くる - 来ます (きて) - 来て (きて)

I think I’m missing a few but that’s all I can come up with off the top of my head lol.

> [@Stay\_coolXD](#):
>
> Should i memorize that? Do i figure it out with experience later on?

Honestly I suggest both.  
I think a general foundation of knowledge on the verbs might help. It makes reading a lot easier/smoother if that makes sense.  
You don’t have to be able to say them off the top of your head immediately, and only reading and experience will help you get better, but I think memorization is fine as well.

And finally o//oo/o/o/

If you like some good ol srs like Wanikani, someone made a third party app called [https://waniconjugation.herokuapp.com/](https://waniconjugation.herokuapp.com/) so you can practice ^0^ ❤ Hope that helped somehow.

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**Author:** ![Belthazar](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/belthazar/32/4469_2.png) [@Belthazar](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Belthazar)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 11:16pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/13 "2020-09-09T23:16:36Z")

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> [@Whologist](#):
>
> ぬ (really one of the only verbs you’ll see with this are 死ぬ tbh I can’t think of others off the top of my head)

That’s it. The only other one still in existence is 往ぬ, but that’s archaic everywhere except for Kansai.

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**Author:** ![alo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/alo/32/239506_2.png) [@alo](https://community.wanikani.com/u/alo)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 11:28pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/14 "2020-09-09T23:28:58Z")

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> [@Belthazar](#):
>
> Mystery number one: There’s eight of them.

I, um, mathed wrong. ぐらい七つ w

> [@Belthazar](#):
>
> いる (which is basically always written in kana, but the kanji is 居る) which is ichidan. You’ll learn to tell them apart with exposure.

@Stay_coolXD

That’s basically the one you see everywhere, multiple times in the same sentence even. It was actually cool finding out that there was a Kanji for it.

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**Author:** ![Leebo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/leebo/32/439476_2.png) [@Leebo](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Leebo)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 11:34pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/15 "2020-09-09T23:34:23Z")

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> [@Whologist](#):
>
> The two main exceptions I can think of on the top of my head are  
> する - します, して  
> くる - 来ます (きて) - 来て (きて)
> 
> I think I’m missing a few but that’s all I can come up with off the top of my head lol.

Some exceptional て forms include 行く \> 行って, and 問う \> 問うて

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**Author:** ![Belthazar](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/belthazar/32/4469_2.png) [@Belthazar](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Belthazar)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/16 "2020-09-10T01:11:39Z")

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And then there’s the fun keigo verb ～ある＞～あいます pattern, if we’ve covering all the exceptions.

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**Author:** ![natiiix](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@natiiix](https://community.wanikani.com/u/natiiix)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 1:34am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/17 "2020-09-10T01:34:11Z")

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There aren’t really that many godan verbs ending in ~iru/eru. The most common ones are listed at the bottom of [this page in the Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide](http://www.guidetojapanese.org/verbs.html).

I don’t know if this information will be of any use to you because I have a hard time understanding what you wanted to know exactly. The basic verb conjugation rules are very consistent, so once you learn them, all you have to do is beware of the ~iru/eru godan verbs, some of which are very common and others you may never even really encounter.

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**Author:** ![Belthazar](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/belthazar/32/4469_2.png) [@Belthazar](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Belthazar)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 10:18am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/19 "2020-09-10T10:18:27Z")

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> [@xplo](#):
>
> This is to be expected, since you ~~are not Japanese~~ haven’t had much practice yet.

Fixed that for you.

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**Author:** ![Astroraptor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/astroraptor/32/256164_2.png) [@Astroraptor](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Astroraptor)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 10:23am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/20 "2020-09-10T10:23:02Z")

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As far as I know, all godan verbs that end in いる/える have only one okurigana. So, if a verb ends in いる/える and has three moras of more, you can tell if it’s godan or ichidan. Ichidan verbs will have two or more moras sticking out and godan ones will have one.  
Ichidan:食べる、考える、聞こえる  
Godan:走る、限る、入る

For those with only two moras total, you have to memorize them.

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**Author:** ![Leebo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/leebo/32/439476_2.png) [@Leebo](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Leebo)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 10:53am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849/21 "2020-09-10T10:53:32Z")

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> [@Astroraptor](#):
>
> As far as I know, all godan verbs that end in いる/える have only one okurigana. So, if a verb ends in いる/える and has three moras of more, you can tell if it’s godan or ichidan. Ichidan verbs will have two or more moras sticking out and godan ones will have one.

This is indeed a pretty reliable heuristic. Off the top of my head I could only think of 混じる as an exception. A bit more searching turned up 臥ふせる (not particularly common, the ichidan 伏せる is more common) and しくじる (which has no associated kanji at all).

[Next page](https://community.wanikani.com/t/godan-vs-ichidan/45849.md?page=2)