N5 · UNIT 8

て-form Requests

The て-form, the Swiss-army knife of Japanese. One small form unlocks polite requests (待ってください), actions in progress (話しています), and chaining a whole morning into a single sentence.

About this unit

One small form, three superpowers. The て-form unlocks polite requests, actions happening right now, and chaining a whole morning into a single sentence. It's the hardest-working form in Japanese, drill it here and every unit after this one gets easier.

語彙 · Vocabulary 42 words · 10 kanji

1

Read the words

Read straight down the list once, out loud if you can. Don't grind them here, the Anki deck at the bottom does the memorizing. Right now you only want the shapes and sounds to feel familiar.

WordReadingMeaning
to speak; to talk
to say
to wait
to stand
to sit
to enter; to go in
to exit; to leave
to open (something)
to close (something)
to turn on
to turn off; to erase
to take; to take (a photo)
to use
to teach; to tell (information)
to show
to hurry
to rest; to take a day off
to live; to reside (used as すんでいます)
to get to know (しっています = to know)
train
car
bicycle
bus
taxi
subway
ticket
ticket gate
north exit
road; way
traffic light
intersection
telephone; phone call
door
window
(electric) light; electricity
photograph
cell phone
right (side)
left (side)
a little; a moment
straight ahead
slowly; without hurrying
2

Learn the kanji

The 10 kanji for this unit. Tap any card to flip between its meaning and its readings, and say the reading aloud as it flips.

enter
exit; go out
stand
wait
rest
speak; talk
electricity
car; vehicle
station
road; way
3

Read it in context

Everything above, working together. Read the conversation top to bottom, out loud. Every line is built only from words and kanji you have already met, so resist the English, tap a word only if you are truly stuck.

Show English

Maria and Mr. Tanaka agreed to meet at the station, but the station is enormous, and Maria is lost. She calls him, and the て-form does all the work.

マリア
Hello? Mr. Tanaka? It's Maria. I'm inside the station now. But I don't know the way...
たなか
It's okay. What are you doing right now?
マリア
I'm standing in front of the ticket gates. There are so many people!
たなか
Okay, go out through the gates and walk straight ahead. Then please wait at the north exit.
マリア
The north exit, right? Got it. One moment... okay, I'm out now.
たなか
I'll be right there. Oh, Ms. Yamada is here too.
マリア
Ah, Mr. Tanaka! And Ms. Yamada! Hello!
やまだ
Hello, Maria. Come on, the train is coming, please hurry!
Notice: one form, three jobs in a single phone call, 待ってください (a request), 立っています (action in progress), and 出て、まっすぐ行って… (linking actions). Master the て-form once and you unlock all three. And yes: 行きます breaks the く→いて rule, it's 行って.
Stop, learn the vocabulary before the grammar

These units are short on purpose. The grammar only clicks when the words are already automatic, so front-load the deck here, and let spaced repetition do the memorizing while the lesson does the teaching.

  1. Import this unit's deck. Generate it with npm run content:deck, then import n5-unit8-deck.apkg into Anki or Migaku. (SRS connection status lives on your dashboard.)
  2. Learn all 42 words as new cards. Get through the whole deck in a sitting or two, you're aiming for recognition, not mastery yet.
  3. Review daily until every card reaches a 3–5 day interval. When the whole deck has settled at that spacing, the words are holding on their own and won't fight you during the grammar.
  4. Then come back. You'll read the patterns instead of decoding the words, and that's when a "small" unit actually soaks in.
Anki open with AnkiConnect? I can confirm the deck for you.

Tick the box above once the deck is soaking in, then the grammar unlocks.

文法 · Grammar 4 patterns

Take one pattern at a time. Read the rule, then read each example out loud until the shape feels obvious. The words should already be automatic from your deck, so all you are learning here is how they lock together.

Quick suggestion: write these patterns down by hand as you read them. It is the one habit that textbook learners and self-taught immersion learners both swear by, and a notebook is the cheapest memory upgrade there is. Not required, just recommended.
The connector form. う-verbs change by their final sound: う・つ・る→って（買って・待って）／ む・ぶ・ぬ→んで（飲んで・読んで）／ く→いて（書いて, EXCEPTION 行きます→行って）／ ぐ→いで（いそいで）／ す→して（話して）. る-verbs: swap ます for て（食べます→食べて）. Irregulars: します→して、来ます→来て.
kaimasu → katte / machimasu → matte / nomimasu → nonde
kakimasu → kaite. But ikimasu → itte!
Note: From the ます-form the same chart reads: い・ち・り→って ／ み・び・に→んで ／ き→いて ／ ぎ→いで ／ し→して. Chant it, って・んで・いて・いで・して. Every unit from here on builds on this one form.
て-form ＋ ください makes a polite request, "please do."
Please wait a moment.
Please write your name here.
Note: てください is polite but direct, perfect for taxi drivers, shop staff, and friends. Put すみませんが… in front to soften it further.
て-form ＋ います describes an action in progress, "is …ing."
Maria is talking on the phone right now.
I live in Japan.
Note: ています also covers ongoing STATES, not just live action: すんでいます (lives), しっています (knows). Japanese treats these as results that keep on holding.
Link actions in sequence with the て-form, verb-て、verb-て、final verb. Only the last verb carries the tense.
I get up, eat bread, and go to school.
I went out through the gates, turned right, and waited at the north exit.
Note: The order of て-clauses is the order things happen, no word for “and then” needed. Tense lives only in the final verb: 待ちました makes the whole chain past.

文化 · Culture note

A short read on the world these words live in. Nothing to drill here, just the context that makes the grammar feel like something people actually say.

Trains Run This Country

Board any train in Japan and the first thing you notice is the quiet. Phones are set to マナーモード, “manner mode,” meaning silent, and nobody takes calls in the car. Announcements remind you constantly; a ringing phone earns real glares. If a call truly can't wait, people whisper 「あとで電話します」 (“I'll call you back”) and hang up. Maria's phone call in this unit happens on the platform, never inside the train.

Platforms have painted lines and arrows showing exactly where each door will stop, and people queue on them, neatly, two by two, letting passengers off before anyone boards. At the busiest Tokyo stations during rush hour, white-gloved staff called おしや (“pushers”) gently pack the last riders in so the doors can close. It looks chaotic on video; in person it's astonishingly orderly.

Cities in Japan are built around stations, not roads. Apartments are advertised by walking minutes to the nearest station, shops cluster at each exit, and directions are given by line, station, and exit, “meet at the north exit” is exactly how real plans are made, which is why this unit's dialogue happens where it does. Learn to read a train map and you can navigate the entire country.

Try it: Stand on the correct side of the escalator, left in Tokyo, right in Osaka, and you'll pass for a local before you say a single word.

練習 · Worksheet 8 exercises

Convert each verb to its て-form and type the missing word in hiragana, then check your answers.

Check your answers to continue, it doesn't matter how many you miss.

Unit Quiz JLPT FORMAT

Pass mark 80% · instant explanations · passing unlocks the next unit