Walking and Talking: How to Connect Two Actions by Using the て Form

Welcome to your one-stop shop for mastering Japanese! Today, we’re going to take a look at simple sentences and learn how to take them a step further by creating compound sentences. In this lesson, we will focus on the て (te) form and how to use it to combine two actions into one sentence. 

Round one, fight!

Japanese Verb Review

Before we begin with the て (te) form, let’s review some common verbs. In Japanese, there are three kinds of verbs: u–verbs, ru–verbs, and irregular verbs.

U–verbs are verbs that end in “u” (as in “oo”) sounds. Here are some examples of u–verbs.

U-VERBS

Japanese	Romaji	English
歌う	utau	to sing
立つ	tatsu	to stand
取る	toru	to take (a picture)
飲む	nomu	to drink
遊ぶ	asobu	to play
歩く	aruku	to walk
脱ぐ	nugu	to remove (clothing)
話す	hanasu	to talk

Ru-verbs are verbs that end with the hiragana character る (ru). However, keep in mind that sometimes verbs ending in る can be considered u–verbs (like 取る above). Here are a few examples of ru–verbs.

RU-VERBS

Japanese	Romaji	English
寝る	neru	to sleep
起きる	okiru	to wake up

And, lastly, these are the irregular verbs.

IRREGULAR VERBS

Japanese	Romaji	English
する	suru	to do
来る	kuru	to come

Now that we’ve gone over some common verbs, let’s create a few sentences!

僕はカラオケで友達と歌った。
Boku wa karaoke de tomodachi to uatta.
I sang with my friends at karaoke.

彼はりんごの写真を取りました。
Kare wa ringo no shashin wo torimashita.
He took a picture of an apple.

Conjugating Verbs into the て Form

Now that we’ve reviewed some common verbs, let’s conjugate them into their て form. 

Conjugating verbs into the て form depends on the type of verb you’re using. 

With u-verbs, you remove the last hiragana character of the word and replace it with the character according to the chart below. 

GUIDE TO CONVERTING U-VERBS INTO THE -TE FORM

If it ends in…	…replace it with…
う　・　つ　・　るu           tsu   ru	ってtte
む　・　ぬ　・　ぶmu          nu bu	んでnde
くku	いてite
ぐgu	いでide
すsu	してshite

NOTE: An exception is the verb 行く (iku, to go), which becomes 行って (itte) (see table below).

Now, let’s take the u-verbs from earlier and conjugate them into their て forms!

U-VERBS (-TE FORM)

Japanese	Romaji
歌う  ➝ 歌って	utau  ➝ utatte
立つ  ➝ 立って	tatsu  ➝ tatte
取る  ➝ 取って	toru  ➝ totte
飲む  ➝ 飲んで	nomu  ➝ nonde
遊ぶ  ➝ 遊んで	asobu  ➝ asonde
歩く  ➝ 歩いて	aruku  ➝ aruite
脱ぐ  ➝ 脱いで	nugu  ➝ nuide
話す  ➝ 話して	hanasu  ➝ hanashite
行く  ➝ 行って	iku  ➝ itte

With ru-verbs, you remove the final hiragana character る (ru) and replace it with て.

RU-VERBS (-TE FORM)

Japanese	Romaji
寝る  ➝ 寝て	neru  ➝ nete
起きる  ➝ 起きて	okiru  ➝ okite

And, finally, here are the irregular verbs.

IRREGULAR VERBS (-TE FORM)

Japanese	Romaji
する  ➝ して	suru  ➝ shite
来る  ➝ 来て	kuru  ➝ kite

Using the て Form to Connect Actions

In elementary school, we first learn how to construct simple sentences when writing.

I eat breakfast.

I drink orange juice.

However, when we get older, we learn that using only short simple sentences over and over can get boring after a while. Plus, that’s not the way people speak naturally. Therefore, as a second step to constructing sentences, we are taught how to combine two actions in one sentence to form a compound sentence. This is done in English by using the word “and.”

 I eat breakfast and drink orange juice.

I eat breakfast.

I drink orange juice.

The same goes for Japanese. Too many short simple sentences strung together can get monotonous. Japanese people, just like English speakers, like variation in sentence structure when speaking and reading longer works. Let’s take a look at how the two simple sentences above work in Japanese!

English	I eat breakfast.	I drink orange juice.
Japanese	私は朝ご飯を食べる。	私はオレンジジュースを飲む。
Romaji	Watashi wa asa-gohan wo taberu.	Watashi wa orenji juusu wo nomu.

Now, Let’s remove the second “Watashi wa” and combine the two actions to form one sentence by using the て form of “taberu.”

 私は朝ご飯を食べて、オレンジジュースを飲む。Watashi wa asa-gohan wo tabete, orenji juusu wo nomu.I eat breakfast and drink orange juice.

私は朝ご飯を食べる。Watashi wa asa-gohan wo taberu.

私はオレンジジュースを飲む。Watashi wa orenji juusu wo nomu.

Now that we know how to connect two actions to form one sentence by using the て form, let’s create some more sentences!

Example Sentences:

私は朝早く起きて、夜早く寝る。
Watashi wa asa hayaku okite, yoru hayaku neru.
I wake up early and go to bed early.

彼は友達と遊んで、一緒にカラオケを歌う。
Kare wa tomodachi to asonde, issho ni karaoke wo  utau.
He hangs out with his friends and they sing karaoke together. 

毎日彼女は公園に行って、自然の写真を取ります。
Mainichi kanojo wa kouen ni itte, shizen no shashin wo torimasu.
She goes to the park and takes pictures of nature every day.

サマンサはカフェでコーヒーを飲んで、日本語を勉強します。
Samansa wa kafe de koohii wo nonde, nihongo wo benkyou shimasu.
Samantha drinks coffee and studies Japanese at a cafe. 

In Summary

Using the て form of verbs is one way of connecting two actions to form one sentence. It links two simple sentences to form a compound sentence much the same way that “and” does in English.

Conjugating verbs into the て form depends on the type of verb you’re using.

With u–verbs, you substitute the final hiragana character of the dictionary form with the character according to this chart:

If it ends in…	…replace it with…
う　・　つ　・　るu           tsu   ru	ってtte
む　・　ぬ　・　ぶmu          nu bu	んでnde
くku	いてite
ぐgu	いでide
すsu	してshite

With ru–verbs, you substitute the final る character with て.

And with the irregular verbs, する becomes して and 来る becomes 来て.

Now that you know how to combine two actions using the て form, it’s time to get out there and practice! Impress your Japanese teacher or partner with how concise you’ve become with your speaking and writing!

Practice, practice, practice!

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