Japanese

Noun

連用形 ‎(hiragana れんようけい, romaji ren'yōkei)

1. (grammar) An inflectional category; the conjunctive form. This is the base form after which various conjugational endings are added, such as て (te) or ます (masu). See Appendix:Japanese verbs for more details.

Usage notes

As a term describing an inherently Japanese grammatical form, 連用形 is sometimes simply transliterated. When rendered into English, the term has been translated different ways by different authors. Alternate glosses include:

• adverbial
• base form
• conjunctional
• continuative
• deverbal noun
• infinitive
• stem form

Related terms

• 已然形 (いぜんけい) ‎(izenkei, “realis”)
• 仮定形 (かていけい) ‎(kateikei, “conditional”)
• 終止形 (しゅうしけい) ‎(shūshikei, “conclusive”)
• 未然形 (みぜんけい) ‎(mizenkei, “irrealis”)
• 命令形 (めいれいけい) ‎(meireikei, “imperative”)
• 連体形 (れんたいけい) ‎(rentaikei, “attributive”)

References

1. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
2. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3
3. ↑ 1997, 新明解国語辞典 (Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten), Fifth Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13143-0

• Sandness, Karen (1999) The Evolution of the Japanese Past and Perfective suffixes, Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, ISBN 0-939-51292-0, pages 3, 12, 42, others
• Henderson, Harold Gould (1948) Handbook of Japanese Grammar, Houghton Mifflin Co., page 12
• Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Volume 6, University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1932, page 643