The て Form

What is the て form?

The て form is an attachment you add to a verb. The て form is used for many different things like listing actions and forming longer sentences. It is also used in many grammatical expressions, making it very useful in the Japanese language.

How to form the て form

Conjugating a verb to the て form is actually really easy, as long as you know the plain past form. Take the verb's plain past form and replace the た/だ with a て/で.

Ex. 食べる　ー＞　たべた　ー＞　食べて

infinitive plain past て form

The uses of the て form

The て form alone is used for listing actions. It almost acts like gthe English word "then".

Ex. 食べて、飲んで、休んで、..., ..., etc. tabete, nonde, yasunde, ..., ... etc.

I eat, (then) drink, (then) rest, then ..., then ..., etc.

The て form is also used for forming other grammatical structures, meaning that you might need to use this form for another form to work. These other forms will be taught in the future.

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