Useful everyday Japanese verbs: 100 more to learn

100 useful Japanese verbs

Verbs are in dictionary form with a Hepburn reading. Several are short phrases with a noun and a particle, such as 嘘をつく (to tell a lie), because that is how Japanese says them. This is the second verbs pack the Contos web app uses for flashcard review.

消す or 消える? Verbs that come in pairs

Japanese often has two related verbs where English has one. One says that someone does something to an object, marked with を. The other says that it happens by itself, with the thing as the subject and が. "I turned off the light" and "the light went off" use different verbs.

Which verbs come with their own noun?

Some actions are always said with the same noun and verb, and the verb is not the one an English speaker would guess. You "attach" a lie (嘘をつく) and "blow" a whistle with your lips (口笛を吹く), and ironing and locking both use かける, a verb with dozens of meanings (アイロンをかける, 鍵をかける). Learn them as one unit.

Particles matter with a few verbs here. You marry someone with と, not を: 田中さんと結婚しました, I married Tanaka. And you cross a road or bridge with を: 橋を渡る (hashi o wataru), to cross the bridge.

する verbs, and formal words to say more simply

Twenty-seven verbs in this list end in する. Most are a two-kanji noun from Chinese plus する, a pattern that lets Japanese make a verb from almost any noun of action. A few are katakana loanwords, such as ノックする and キャンセルする. In the line below, as in many Contos stories, the two parts are spaced as separate words, so you can tap the noun on its own.

Some two-kanji する verbs sound formal, much as Latin-based words can in English. For these meanings the list gives the everyday verb; the formal one is what you will meet in writing and the news: