Te (て) - How does this form work in Japanese?

TE (て) is one of the most fundamental forms in Japanese. Those who are starting to learn Japanese must have come across the form て (te). For those who haven’t reached that point yet, the て (TE) form is used to conjugate verbs, make requests, and list actions performed in the same sentence.

Therefore, I will explain right away how this form works in the Japanese language. Check it out:

1. Te form (て) – To make a request

Firstly, this form is used to ask someone for something informally. To use this form, you need to change the ending of the verb to the て form. A basic example: Let’s use the verb 食べる (taberu) which means “to eat.” The ending of the verb is る. Therefore, in the て form, it would be 食べて (tabete) which means “eat.”

However, depending on the verb’s ending, you will not place exactly て in its place. Below is a list of how to use this form:

2. Te form (て) – For verb conjugation

This form is also used to conjugate verbs in the present continuous tense. It indicates that the person is currently performing some action. In this sense, it is comparable to the “ndo” form in Portuguese when we want to say that we are doing something.

To conjugate, combine the て form + いる as shown in the table below:

Kanji (romaji)	Meaning	て form + いる	Meaning
する (suru)	To do	している (shiteiru)	Doing
くる (kuru)	To come	きている (kiteiru)	Coming
飲む (nomu)	To drink	飲んでいる (nondeiru)	Drinking
遊ぶ (asobu)	To play	遊んでいる (asondeiru)	Playing
殺す (korosu)	To kill	殺している (koroshiteiru)	Killing
聞く (kiku)	To listen	聞いている (kiiteiru)	Listening

In summary, you will use the て form and add いる to the verb you are conjugating;

3. Te form (て) – To connect words

Similarly, this form can also be used to connect words. However, you use て to connect only verbs. For example, let’s use the following sentences:

今日は起きてました
Kyou wa okitemashita

Today, I got up

朝ご飯を食べました
Asagohan wo tabemashita

I had breakfast

学校に行きました
Gakkou ni ikimashita

I went to school

How do we connect these sentences? It’s simple. Using the て form, the three sentences become:

今日は起きて、朝ご飯を食べて、学校に行きました。
kyou wa okite, asagohan wo tabete, gakkou ni ikimashita

Today I got up, had breakfast, and went to school

Thus, the three sentences are connected to establish a chronological order of events. However, only the last verb remains in the polite form (ます form). If you are going to write a sentence in the polite form, always leave the last verb in the ます form. 

• Contextualization – The basis of the Japanese language
• どんな – Donna – Pronoun used in Japanese