Saying what you can do in Japanese: the potential form

Level B1

Saying what you can do in Japanese: the potential form

Someone invites you to dinner and wants to know: can you eat fish, can you drink, can you make it on Friday? In this lesson you answer with the potential form of three verbs you know: 食べられる (taberareru), 飲める (nomeru) and 行ける (ikeru). One idea runs through it: to say that something is or isn't possible, you change the verb itself, and the context shows whether the reason is the person, the situation or the thing.

Recap: できます and the plain forms

You can already say what you can do with a noun: 料理ができます (ryōri ga dekimasu), “I can cook”, and 運転ができません (unten ga dekimasen), “I can't drive”. 分かります (wakarimasu) means “understand”, and 少し (sukoshi, a little) says how much. The other base is the dictionary form, which is also the plain form: 食べる (taberu, eat), 飲む (nomu, drink) and 行く (iku, go). English puts “can” in front of any verb. With verbs like these, Japanese usually changes the verb itself instead of using できます.

Model: planning a dinner

Listen once without reading. A is planning a dinner with B, and both stay polite. Each answer ends in a verb you know, now changed. 魚 (sakana) is fish, 卵 (tamago) is egg, お酒 (osake) is alcohol, and 金曜日の七時に (kin'yōbi no shichiji ni) is “on Friday at seven”.

The potential form: 食べられる, 飲める, 行ける

食べる drops る and takes られる: 食べられる. 飲む and 行く swap their last sound for its “e” version, む for め and く for け, then take る: 飲める, 行ける. These are the same two routes as 食べない and 飲まない. A verb's ending doesn't always show its route, because some verbs in る change like 飲む, so learn each verb's form as you meet it; “Japanese verb groups and polite and plain forms” has the full picture. Here, stay with these three. バス (basu) is bus, and で marks the means: バスで駅に行ける.

…が／…に食べられる／飲める／行ける

The forms of each verb

A potential form is itself a verb that conjugates like 食べる: drop る and add ます, ません or ない. So 飲める gives 飲めます, 飲めません and 飲めない. This table is for reference: you'll hear these forms in the sentences of this lesson.

PotentialPolitePolite negativePlain negative
食べられる（たべられる）食べられます（たべられます）食べられません（たべられません）食べられない（たべられない）
飲める（のめる）飲めます（のめます）飲めません（のめません）飲めない（のめない）
行ける（いける）行けます（いけます）行けません（いけません）行けない（いけない）

With the potential, を usually becomes が

Compare 魚を食べます (sakana o tabemasu, I eat fish) with 魚が食べられます (sakana ga taberaremasu, I can eat fish). With these verbs, what you eat or drink usually takes が instead of を, as in 料理ができます and 日本語が分かります. You'll also hear を (魚を食べられます), and it isn't a mistake, but use が in this lesson. に and で stay as they are: 駅に行きます, バスで駅に行けます. は can stand in for が to set a topic or draw a contrast, as in 魚は食べられますか and 卵は食べられません in the model.

One form, many reasons

English “can't” hides the reason too, and in Japanese the context shows it: a restriction on what you eat (卵が食べられません), your schedule (明日は行けません, where English says “come” and Japanese says “go”), the thing itself (この水は飲めません) or a reason you give with ので (頭が痛いので、今日は行けません, atama ga itai node, “I've got a headache, so…”).

Compare 私は肉を食べません (watashi wa niku o tabemasen), which only reports that you don't eat meat, with 肉が食べられません (niku ga taberaremasen), which says eating it isn't possible for you. To explain a restriction, use the plain form with んです (n desu, the ending that gives an explanation): 卵が食べられないんです. The ない form ends in い and links like 痛い in 頭が痛いので. Then これは食べられますか (kore wa taberaremasu ka) asks whether a dish is one you can have. To ask permission in a place, keep ここで水を飲んでもいいですか.

With friends: 行ける？ 行けない

Listen to two friends. With people close to you, the potential stays plain, and the usual habits of plain speech apply: no か, a rising voice in a question, うん and ううん for yes and no, and often a pause where が or は would be (土曜日、行ける？). ごめん (gomen) is a friend's “sorry”. With someone you don't know, keep 行けます and 行けません.

Just to recognize: two look-alikes

In speech, many people say 食べれる (tabereru), without ら: これ、食べれる？ It's casual and common; in writing, exams and formal settings, stay with 食べられる, the form this lesson teaches.

魚が食べられます is a potential, but 食べられる can also be a passive. In 魚は猫に食べられました, “the fish was eaten by the cat”, 猫に (neko ni, by the cat) shows who did it. So don't decide from the shape alone: check who does what. Of this lesson's three verbs, only 食べられる can lose its ら or play both parts.

Your turn, and the summary

You're in a restaurant and can't drink alcohol. Cover the sentences below, explain that with んです, and ask whether you can drink what you're pointing at. Then say you can drink coffee, politely turn down Friday, and tell a friend you can't make it. Check only afterwards; a different restriction or day is even better. In short: 食べられる, 飲める and 行ける say what is or isn't possible, what you eat or drink usually takes が, and the context gives the reason.

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