～（ら）れる／～える

The potential form turns a verb that means “do” into one that means “can do”. Instead of adding a separate word like English “can”, Japanese changes the shape of the verb itself: 話す “speak” becomes 話せる “can speak”.

It covers both personal ability (“I can swim”) and possibility in a situation (“you can buy it here”).

1. Ability

The most common use is saying what someone is able to do. Note that the thing you can do usually takes が instead of を.

2. Possibility

The potential also says that something is possible or feasible in a given situation, not just a personal skill.

Same shape as the passive on ru-verbs

On ichidan (ru-) verbs, potential ～られる looks exactly like the passive: 食べられる can mean “can eat” or “is eaten”. The context decides which one is meant. In casual speech many people drop the ら — 食べれる and that shortened shape can only be the potential.

How to form it

Godan (u-) verbs: change the final u-sound to its e-row sound and add る. Ichidan (ru-) verbs: drop る and add られる. Irregular verbs: する → できる, 来る → 来られる（こられる）.

• 話す（はなす）= to speak → 話せる（はなせる）= can speak
• 行く（いく）= to go → 行ける（いける）= can go
• 食べる（たべる）= to eat → 食べられる（たべられる）= can eat
• する = to do → できる = can do
• 来る（くる）= to come → 来られる（こられる）= can come

Key idea

The potential form builds “can” into the verb itself so one word carries both the action and the ability, and the thing you can do is usually marked with が.