In Japanese, jodoushi 助動詞 are the morphemes suffixed to the six basic forms of verbs and adjectives in order to conjugate them into more complex forms.
For example, in nomaserarenakatta 飲ませられなかった, "[I] didn't let [you] make [me] drink [it]," there are four jodoushi: the past ta, the negative nai, the passive rareru, and the causative saseru, thus, the verb nomu 飲む, "to drink," is in its past, negative, passive, causative form.
In English, jodoushi is often confusingly translated as "auxiliary verb." There are various types of auxiliary verbs in Japanese, and jodoushi are the ones that least look like verbs. I mean, nai is an adjective, and even the ~ta ～た of past forms is a jodoushi.
In dictionaries, it's abbreviated to jodou 助動.
List
For reference, a list of jodoushi 助動詞 and their respective functions. Note: taberu 食べる, "to eat," is an ichidan verb, while nomu 飲む, "to drink," is a godan verb.
- ~ta ～た, after ren'youkei.
Past form.- tabeta
食べた
Did eat. Ate. - nonda
飲んだ
Did drink. Drank. - kawaikatta
可愛かった
Was cute.
- tabeta
- ~te ～て, after ren'youkei.
Connective form. Conjunctive form.- tabete
食べて
To eat, and...
Eat [it]. (sometimes used as an imperative.) - nonde
飲んで
To drink, and...
Drink [it]. - kawaikute
可愛くて
To be cute, and...
- tabete
- ~nai ～ない, after mizenkei.
Negative form.- tabenai
食べない
To not eat. - nomanai
飲まない
To not eat.
- tabenai
- ~(sa)seru させる, after mizenkei.
Causative form.- tabesaseru
食べさせる
To make eat. To let eat. - nomaseru
飲ませる
To make drink. To let drink.
- tabesaseru
- ~(ra)reru られる, after mizenkei.
Passive form.
Potential form.
- taberareru
食べられる
To be eaten.
Can eat. - nomareru
飲まれる
To be drunk. (doesn't mean to drink too much alcohol, like it means in English.)
Can drink.
- taberareru
- ~tai ～たい, after ren'youkei.
Desiderative form.- tabetai
食べたい
Want to eat. - nomitai
飲みたい
Want to drink.
- tabetai
- ~masu ～ます, after ren'youkei.
Polite form.
By the way, the ren'youkei is sometimes called the "masu stem" because it's literally the stem of this jodoushi.- tabemasu
食べます
[I] will eat [it]. - nomimasu
飲みます
[I] will drink [it].
- tabemasu
- ~u ～う, after mizenkei.
Volitional form.
Sometimes hypothetically.- tabeyou
食べよう
Let's eat. - nomou
飲もう
Let's drink. - yokarou
良かろう
Very well. Alright. - nani ga arou to
何があろうと
No matter what happens.
- tabeyou
- ~nu ～ぬ, after mizenkei.
Negative form. Same meaning as ~nai ～ない, but its usage is different.- nomanu
飲まぬ
[I] won't drink [it].
- nomanu
- ~n ～ん, after mizenkei.
A contraction of ~nu ～ぬ.- shiran
知らん
[I] don't know. - keshikaran
怪しからん
Not appropriate.
Scandalous. Outrageous.
- shiran
- ~yagaru ～やがる, after ren'youkei.
To have the nerve to do something.- uso wo tsukiyagaru
嘘をつきやがる
To have the nerve to tell a lie.
- uso wo tsukiyagaru
- da だ, after nouns and the root of na-adjectives.
Copula.- kore da
これだ
This is [it]. - kirei da
綺麗だ
[It] is pretty.
- kore da
- desu です, after nouns and the root of na-adjectives.
This is the polite variant of da だ. - ~sou da ～そうだ, after ren'youkei of verbs, stem of adjectives.
Seems like.- shini-sou da
死にそうだ
[It] looks like [he's going] to die. - benri-sou da
便利そうだ
[It] seems useful. - oishi-sou da
美味しそうだ
[It] seems delicious.
- shini-sou da
- ~you da ～ようだ, after rentaikei. Works basically like a noun.
To seem like.- jikan ga kakaru you da
時間がかかるようだ
It seems like [it] will take time..
- jikan ga kakaru you da
- ~rashii ～らしい, after shuushikei of verbs, stem of adjectives.
I heard that. It seems that.- koko ni kuru-rashii
ここに来るらしい
I heard that [he] will come here. - oishii-rashii
美味しいらしい
I heard that [it] is delicious. - kirei-rashii
綺麗らしい
I heard that [it] is pretty.
- koko ni kuru-rashii
Grammar
The grammar of jodoushi is extremely weird, for several reasons.
To begin with, in Japanese, verbs, adjectives, and even the jodoushi themselves, have six different basic forms they can be conjugated to. Actually, it's more than six, but there's only six names for them. They are:
- mizenkei
未然形
Irrealis form.- noma 飲ま
- nomo 飲も
- ren'youkei
連用形
Conjunctive form.- nomi 飲み
- non 飲ん (onbinkei 音便形)
- shuushikei
終止形
Predicative form.- nomu 飲む
- rentaikei
連体形
Attributive form.- nomu 飲む
- kateikei, or izenkei
仮定形, 已然形
Hypothetical form. Realis form.- nome 飲め
- meireikei
命令形
Imperative form.- nome 飲め
As you can see above, it's a mess. Some terms apply to multiple forms. Some forms apply to multiple terms, and which term it is, exactly, depends on how the word is used. For example, if a verb is used predicatively, it's shuushikei, but if it's used attributively, it's rentaikei.
Furthermore, ichidan verbs and godan verbs have different forms. See: ichidan vs. godan.
The important thing about these six forms is that they don't have a jodoushi in them.
For example, the past form of taberu 食べる, "to eat," is tabeta 食べた, "ate." In this past form, which you'd imagine is the simplest form possible, there's already a jodoushi in it: the ta た. Similarly, the negative form has a jodoushi, too.
In fact, you can't even use some forms without a jodoushi. For example, the mizenkei form doesn't mean anything on its own. Only when you add something to it, it can be used in a phrase.
- *juusu wo noma
ジュースを飲ま
(this is grammatically wrong.) - juusu wo nomanai
ジュースを飲まない
To not drink juice.
The meireikei, "imperative form," on the other hand, can be used without jodoushi:
- juuzu wo nome!
ジュースを飲め！
Drink juice! - yasai wo tabero!
野菜を食べろ！
Eat the vegetables!
So these jodoushi are an essential, but distinct part of the Japanese conjugation system.
Pronunciation
The jodoushi are suffixes. Like all suffixes, they can be affected by changes in pronunciation, like rendaku 連濁 and sokuonbin 促音便. Unlike most suffixes, however, the jodoushi are affected by changes in pronunciation even weirder than normal.
Fortunately, this only applies to the jodoushi ~ta ～た and ~te ～て suffixed to godan verbs. Unfortunately, those are basically everywhere.
Both attach to the ren'youkei form of godan verbs, which ends with ~i.
- korosu
殺す
To kill. - koroshi-ta
殺した
Killed. - koroshi-te
殺して
Kill [him]. Kill [me]. Kill [someone].
The above is the ONLY godan verb that works as you'd expect. All other godan verbs work unexpectedly.
The godan verbs with ~ru ～る, ~tsu ～つ, and ~u ～う endings become tta った and tte って instead. This is called sokuonbin.
- kau. katta. katte.
買う. 買った. 買って
To buy. Bought. Buy [it]. - katsu. katta. katte
勝つ. 勝った. 勝って
To win. Won. Win [it]. - karu. katta. katte
狩る. 狩った. 狩って
To hunt. Hunted. Hunt [it].
The godan verbs with ~ku ～く endings become ~ita ～いた. The ones with ~gu ～ぐ endings become ~ida ～いだ. This is called i-onbin イ音便. The ~ta ～たbecoming ~da ～だ is called renjoudaku 連声濁.
- kaku. kaita.
書く. 書いた
To write. Wrote. - oyogu. oyoida.
泳ぐ. 泳いだ
To swim. Swam.
Except for iku 行く, "to go," which becomes itta 行った, "went," instead.
The godan verbs with ~mu ～む, ~bu ～ぶ, and ~nu ～ぬ endings become ~nda んだ. This is called hatsuonbin 撥音便.
- nomu. nonda.
飲む. 飲んだ
To drink. Drank. - asobu. asonda.
遊ぶ. 遊んだ
To play. Played. - shinu. shinda.
死ぬ. 死んだ
To die. died.
There is, unfortunately, a reason why it all ended up like this.
If you say nomi-ta, asobi-ta, shini-ta very quickly, they kind of merge together, and you end up with nonda, asonda, and shinda, respectively.
The same thing happens with kaki-ta, oyogi-ta, kari-ta, kachi-ta, kai-ta, and so on. The sound before ta た either partially merges with it, or gets skipped, and turned into a double consonant, into a sokuon 促音, represented by the small tsu っ.
Agglutination
The jodoushi have an important role in agglutination in Japanese.
You conjugate a word to a basic form, and then attach a jodoushi to it. You'd think it ends there, however, you can also conjugate the jodoushi.
- kodomo ni yasai wo tabesaseru
子供に野菜を食べさせる
To make a child eat vegetables. - kodomo ni yasai wo tabasasero!
子供に野菜を食べさせろ！
Make the child eat vegetables! (this is an order!)
Above, the causative jodoushi saseru has been conjugated to its imperative form, sasero.
Since you attach jodoushi to basic forms, and you can also conjugate jodoushi to basic forms, that means you can also attach jodoushi to other jodoushi.
- taberareru
食べられる
To be eaten.- Here, rareru is attached to the mizenkei of taberu.
- This is the passive form.
- haha ni yasai wo tabesaserareru
母に野菜を食べさせられる
To be made eat vegetables by [one's] mother.- Here, rareru is attached to the mizenkei of saseru.
- And saseru is attached to the mizenkei of taberu.
- This is the passive causative form.
- yasai wo tabesaserarenakatta
野菜を食べさせられなかった
To not have been made eat vegetables.- Here, ta is attached ren'youkei of nai.
- And nai is attached to the mizenkei of tabesaserareru.
- This is the past negative passive causative form.
This looks a bit complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it's actually very easy.
That's because everything that ends with ~ta ～た is in the past form. It's not like English, where the past of drink is drank, and the past of eat is ate, of freeze, froze, see, saw, cry, cried, swim, swam, and so on. It's always, ALWAYS, ~ta ～た, except when it's ~da ～だ.
- nonda
飲んだ
Drank. - tabeta
食べた
Ate. - kootta
凍った
Froze. - mita
見た
Saw. - naita
泣いた
Cried. - oyoida
泳いだ
Swam.
Similarly, if a complex form is in the past form, it will end in ~ta ～た, too.
- taberareta
食べられた
Was eaten.- Past passive.
- tabenakatta
食べなかった
Did not eat.- Past negative.
Likewise, everything that ends with ~nai ～ない is in negative form. Everything that ends in ~nakatta ～なかった, consequently, is in past negative form. And so on.
Some jodoushi, like ~saseru and ~rareru, are conjugated like ichidan verbs. Others, like ~nai and ~tai, are inflected like i-adjectives. But that's not all.
Some jodoushi have weird conjugations, where they have some of the six forms, not all, and only for some very complicated grammar reason. For example:
- tabetara
食べたら
If [you] ate.- This is the conditional ~tara ～たら form.
This tara-form is composed of the ~ta ～た jodoushi, which creates the past form, conjugated to its kateikei form, which is ~tara ～たら.
Similarly, ~zu ～ず, which translates to "without," is the ren'youkei of the ~nu ～ぬ jodoushi:
- tabezu
食べず
Without eating. - nomazu
飲まず
Without drinking.
The kateikei of ~nu ～ぬ is ~ne ～ね, and can be found in phrases like this:
- yaranai
やらない
To not do. - yaranu
やらぬ
(same meaning as above.) - {yaranakereba naranai} koto ga aru
やらなければならないことがある
[I] have something [that] {not doing can't be}.
[I] have something [that] {[I] must do}.- nakere - kateikei of nai.
- {yaraneba naranai} koto ga aru
やらねばならないことがある
(same meaning as above.)- ne - kateikei of nu.
The same thing happens with masu:
- tabemasu
食べます
To eat.- masu - the polite jodoushi.
- tabemasen
食べません
To not eat.- masen - not a jodoushi.
- mase - the mizenkei of masu.
- n - the contraction of the negative nu ぬ jodoushi.
- tabemashita
食べました
Did eat.- mashita - not a jodoushi.
- mashi - the ren'youkei of masu.
- ta - the past jodoushi.
Copulas
The copulas da だ and desu です are classified as jodoushi in the dictionaries.
Under this analysis, the conjugation of da だ would look like this:[だ - 精選版 日本国語大辞典, via kotobank.jp, accessed 2019-11-01.]
- mizenkei
daro だろ
dara だら - ren'youkei
da' だっ
de で
ni に - shuushikei
da だ - rentaikei
na な - kateikei
nara なら - (it doesn't have a meireikei.)
Another analysis could be that da だ is the predicative copula, na な is the attributive copula, ni に is the adverbial copula, and de で is the te-form of the da だ copula.
Note that this conjugation includes some words that look completely different from da だ. This happens because, for example, ni に doesn't come from da だ, but functionally it works like the ren'youkei form of da だ, so we call it the ren'youkei, because it works like the ren'youkei.
But why are there three different ren'youkei for this thing?
That's because ta た attaches to the ren'youkei to form the past form. Since the past form of da だ is datta だった, that means da' だっ must be a ren'youkei, otherwise ta た wouldn't attach to it.
- kirei da
綺麗だ
Is pretty. - kirei datta
綺麗だった
Was pretty.
Similarly, the ren'youkei of i-adjectives, which ends in ~ku ～く, works like an adverbial form. For na-adjectives, and nouns, the equivalent would be ni に. Therefore, ni に must be the ren'youkei form of da だ, too.
- kawaiku naru
可愛くなる
To become cute. - kirei ni naru
綺麗になる
To become pretty.
Furthermore, the ren'youkei form of i-adjectives can attach to "support verbs," hojo-doushi 補助動詞, like aru ある, "to exist," and, in particular, its irregular negative form, nai ない, "nonexistent." Since the same thing happens to de で, it must be the ren'youkei, too.
- {kawaikunai} neko
可愛くない猫
A cat [that] {is not cute}. - kawaiku wa aru ga...
可愛くはあるが･･･
Cute, [it] is, but... - {kirei de nai} neko
綺麗でない猫
A cat [that] {is not pretty}. - kirei de wa aru ga...
綺麗ではあるが･･･
Pretty, [it] is, but...
Note that the copula, unlike basically everything else, has a shuushikei that is different from its rentaikei. Observe:
- neko ga shaberu
猫が喋る
The cat talks. - neko ga kirei da
猫が綺麗だ
The cat is pretty. - {shaberu} neko
喋る猫
The cat [that] {talks}
The talking cat. - {kirei na} neko
綺麗な猫
The cat [that] {is pretty}.
The pretty cat.
As you can see above, if a word comes before a noun, the attributive form, rentaikei, is used, but if it's the predicate for a subject, the predicative form, shuushikei, is used instead. For verbs and i-adjectives, that form is the same, but for the copula it's different.
Note that, if you say {shabetta} neko 喋った猫, "the cat [that] {talked}," then you have the rentaikei form of the jodoushi ta た, which, as you can see, is identical to its shuushikei: neko ga shabetta 猫が喋った, "the cat talked."
Other Auxiliaries
Not everything that comes after a verb or adjective is a jodoushi.
For example, although the nai ない in the negative form of verbs is a jodoushi, the nai ない in the negative form of i-adjectives is not. It's a hojo-doushi, or hojo-keiyoushi 補助形容詞, "support adjective," instead.
One difference between these two things is that you can't put the wa は particle between a jodoushi and its stem, but you can do it with support words.
- nomanai
飲まない
[I] won't drink it. - *noma wa nai
飲まはない
(wrong.) - tookunai
遠くない
[It] is not far. - tooku wa nai
遠くはない
Far, [it] is not.
So, despite looking like the same thing, they are different things.
Other words that are not jodoushi:
- nomi-nasai
飲みなさい
Drink [it].- nasai - a suffix forming a compound verb.
- nomi-yasui
飲みやすい
Easy to drink.- yasui - a suffix forming a compound adjective.
- {mizu wo nomu} toki
水を飲むとき
When {[you] drink water}.- toki - a formal noun.
- nomu-n-da
飲むんだ
Drink [it].- n-da - a a contraction of no da, which is the no の nominalizer plus the da だ copula.
- nomeba
飲めば
If drinks [it].- ba - a conjunctive particle. This is called the ba-form.
- nomeru
飲める
Can drink.- ~eru - a suffix. This is called a potential verb.
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