て形の作り方

## What it means The て-form is a special "connecting" shape of a verb. By itself it doesn't carry much meaning, but it's the base you need for a huge number of everyday patterns, like asking someone to do something or describing what's happening right now.

## When to use it How you build it depends on the verb group. For る-verbs, just drop る and add て: 見る → 見て, 食べる → 食べて. For う-verbs, it depends on the last sound of the plain form: う/つ/る → って (買う→買って, 待つ→待って, 帰る→帰って); ぬ/む/ぶ → んで (死ぬ→死んで, 飲む→飲んで, 遊ぶ→遊んで); く → いて (書く→書いて); ぐ → いで (急ぐ→急いで); す → して (話す→話して). One common exception: 行く → 行って, not 行いて. Two irregular verbs need memorizing on their own: する → して and 来る → 来て.

## Don't confuse it with Beginners often try to build the て-form starting from the polite ます-form instead of the plain dictionary form — but the group rules above only work cleanly from the plain form. It also helps not to confuse the て-form (a connector, no tense on its own) with the た-form (plain past tense) — they follow the exact same sound-change rules, just with た/だ instead of て/で.