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Learning to use the Japanese Volitional form : Mastering the art of the volitional form to initiate action and express urges.

Hello everyone and welcome to today’s online Japanese lesson. You may be wondering, what on earth is the volitional form? Well first let’s have a look at the definition,

“the power of choosing or determining : will.“

So in essence the volitional form is all about initiating action and expressing urges.

The volitional form has 2 types, the polite and the plain so we will be looking at both of those today.

Firstly we are going to look at how to form the volitional forms, then how to use it and finally some example sentences and charts to use for reference. If you are ready to express some urges, then we urge you to carry on reading and find out how to master the volitional form.

How to form the Polite Volitional form

The volitional form expressed “lets do” when combined with verbs. So for example you could express things like, “let’s eat” “lets dance” “lets run” etc. It is a very handy tool to have in your Japanese arsenal for sure. The polite version of this is ましょうmashou. It is very easy to conjugate this type of verb.

All you need to do is take the masu form of a verb and change ます for ましょう then as if by magic you have a polite volitional form verb. Look at the table below to see how this works.

That’s how you use a polite volitional form verb, we are now going to look at how to create the plain form equivalent o use in less formal situations.

How to form the Plain Volitional form

The Plain volitional form is used much like ましょうmashou, in fact it is the plain form equivalent. Let’s have a look now at how these plain form verbs are formed.

• Group 1 Iru and Eru Verbs: Change the final る to よう
• Group 2 U verbs: Change the final vowel う to おう
• Group 3 Suru and Kuru: くる→こよう、する→しよう

This form of volitional verb is used only in casual speech so please be careful as to how you use the verb.

Okay great, now you have an understanding of how to form the two types of verbs, we can now look at some example sentences to see them at work in different situations. Remember also to create some of your own to help you retain the information better.

Volitional form sentences: Learning through practice.

We are going to start by having a look at some polite volitional form sentences. 行きましょう。

授業を始めましょう

Jugyou wo hajimemashou

Lets begin the lesson

ケーキを食べましょう

Keeki wo tabemashou

Let’s eat cake

酒を飲みましょう

Sake wo nomimashou

Let’s drink Sake

These sentences can be used right away in your Japanese to make suggestions to your colleagues, friends and family. Now we are going to look at some plain form volitional form sentences. 行こう.

授業を始めよう

Jugyou wo hajimeyou

Let's begin the lesson!

ケーキを食べよう

Keeki wo tabeyou

Let’s eat cake!

酒を飲もう

Sake wo nomou

Let’s drink Sake!

These are the same sentences in the plain volitional form! Can you see the difference? These are used much more commonly with casual speech, talking with friends, family etc.

Try and take notice of the different endings and switch between the two for practice purposes. This way you will get used to changing the verb endings much faster.

Now you know how to form the verbs and can also understand the sentences, you should create your own to finish off the lesson. Try and make 5 of your own with different verbs in both the plain and polite forms.

Okay guys well that brings us to the end of today’s online Japanese lesson on the volitional form. We really hope you have enjoyed the lesson and have learnt a lot of new information today. These articles are always best to use as a starting point and should always be put into practice straight away. Don’t try and rush through topics, take the time to really get to know them, understand them and of course, use them.

 As always please ask if you have any questions. If you have any new ideas for content and articles that you would like to see please leave a comment so we can hear your ideas. You guys are doing really well and will keep improving day by day. Have an amazing day everyone and until next time 

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