食べる
たべる
taberu
Conjugation
= to eat
| Form | Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary form The plain form you find in a dictionary |
食べる たべる |
taberu | to eat |
| Masu form Polite present / future |
食べます たべます |
tabemasu | eat (polite) |
| Te form Connects clauses, makes requests |
食べて たべて |
tabete | eat / eating (connective) |
| Ta form Plain past |
食べた たべた |
tabeta | ate |
| Nai form Plain negative |
食べない たべない |
tabenai | don’t eat / not eat |
| Masen form Polite negative |
食べません たべません |
tabemasen | don’t eat (polite) |
| Nakatta form Plain past negative |
食べなかった たべなかった |
tabenakatta | didn’t eat |
| Potential form Can / be able to |
食べられる たべられる |
taberareru | can eat |
| Volitional form Let’s / I think I’ll |
食べよう たべよう |
tabeyou | let’s eat / shall eat |
Taberu (食べる) is the Japanese verb for to eat, and every one of its forms builds on the same unchanging stem.
Ichidan verbs end in -iru or -eru in the dictionary form, and their stem never changes when an ending is attached. Drop the final る from taberu and you get tabe, which ends in an e sound: add て, た, ない, or ます straight onto tabe with no adjustment, and you get tabete, tabeta, tabenai, tabemasu. Not every verb ending in -eru or -iru follows this pattern; some verbs with the -eru shape, such as kaeru (to return), are godan verbs, so the ending alone is a strong clue rather than a guarantee. The reliable check is the negative form: an ichidan verb attaches ない directly to the e-stem, giving tabenai, while a godan verb shifts its final syllable to the a-column first, so kaeru becomes kaeranai, not kaenai. Because tabenai needs no such shift, taberu is confirmed as ichidan.
Tabemasu and tabemasen belong in speech and writing where you are keeping things polite: talking to a server, a colleague, or anyone you are not close to. Drop to taberu, tabenai, tabeta, and tabenakatta with friends, family, or in a diary, where the plain forms sound natural rather than blunt. Tabete is the connector: it links taberu to another clause, turns into a request with kudasai, or describes an action in progress with iru. Taberareru covers ability (managing to eat something, or being physically able to), and because ichidan verbs share their potential and passive shapes, the same word can also mean is eaten depending on context. Tabeyou proposes eating together or states an intention to yourself, the way English uses let’s or I’ll before a meal.
Everyday use
晩ご飯に何を食べますか。
Bangohan ni nani o tabemasu ka?
What will you eat for dinner?
Casual / Social Media
このラーメン、全部食べられるかな。
Kono raamen, zenbu taberareru kana.
I wonder if I can eat all of this ramen.
Formal / Cultural context
手を合わせてから食べてください。
Te o awasete kara tabete kudasai.
Please put your hands together before eating.
A slip learners make is applying godan sound changes to taberu: because verbs like kaeru or matsu change sound before て or た, learners sometimes produce tabette or tabetta instead of the correct tabete and tabeta. In casual speech you will also hear tabereru instead of taberareru for the potential form; this is ra-nuki kotoba, an informal shortening, so it is fine to recognize but risky to write in anything formal. Another mix-up is treating taberareru as only meaning can eat and missing that the identical form also carries the passive sense of being eaten, which changes the reading of a sentence entirely depending on who the subject is.