～て／で

The te-form (て, or its voiced counterpart で) is a connecting form of verbs (食べて, 読んで). I-adjectives have a corresponding ～くて form (忙しくて). It often connects one action or state to what follows. Depending on context, it can express relationships like “X and then Y” or “X happened, so Y happened”.

1. Linking actions in sequence

A chain of te-forms lists actions in the order they happen. Only the last verb carries the tense.

2. Reason or cause

Especially with adjectives, the te-form gives a light reason: “X, so Y”.

3. Launching pad for other patterns

Many common patterns are built on the te-form such as ～ている, ～てください, ～てもいい, and more. Whenever a helper word follows a verb, the te-form is usually the hook it hangs on.

How to form it

The sound changes are the same as for past ～た, but with て: for godan (u-verbs), う・つ・る → って, む・ぶ・ぬ → んで, く → いて, ぐ → いで, す → して, with the exception 行く → 行って. Ichidan (ru-verbs) drop る and add て. Irregulars: する → して, 来る → 来て. I-adjectives become ～くて, and ない becomes なくて.

• 買う（かう）= to buy → 買って（かって）= buy, and
• 読む（よむ）= to read → 読んで（よんで）= read, and
• 書く（かく）= to write → 書いて（かいて）= write, and
• 泳ぐ（およぐ）= to swim → 泳いで（およいで）= swim, and
• 話す（はなす）= to speak → 話して（はなして）= speak, and
• 行く（いく）= to go → 行って（いって）= go, and (exception)
• 食べる（たべる）= to eat → 食べて（たべて）= eat, and
• する = to do → して = do, and
• 来る（くる）= to come → 来て（きて）= come, and
• 高い（たかい）= expensive → 高くて（たかくて）= expensive, and/so
• ない = not → なくて = not, and/so

Key idea

The te-form is Japanese's universal connector. It carries no tense of its own and simply hands the sentence on to what comes next. The ending of the sentence decides the tense for the whole chain.