It's the base form, or dictionary form, of most words and dictionaries.
For example, yomu 読む, "to read," is a shuushikei.
Conjugation
For reference, how to conjugate the shuushikei.| shi kedo | |
| Irregular Verbs | |
| kuru くる | kuru くる |
| suru する | suru する |
| Godan Verbs | |
| kau 買う | kau 買う |
| kaku 書く | kaku 書く |
| oyogu 泳ぐ | oyogu 泳ぐ |
| korosu 殺す | korosu 殺す |
| katsu 勝つ | katsu 勝つ |
| shinu 死ぬ | shinu 死ぬ |
| asobu 遊ぶ | asobu 遊ぶ |
| yomu 読む | yomu 読む |
| kiru 切る | kiru 切る |
| Ichidan Verbs | |
| kiru 着る | kiru 着る |
| taberu 食べる | taberu 食べる |
| Adjectives | |
| kawaii 可愛い | kawaii 可愛い |
| kirei na 綺麗な | kirei da 綺麗だ |
| Jodoushi 助動詞 | |
| masu ます | masu ます |
| desu です | desu です |
Yep, this table is pretty much useless.
For godan verbs, the shuushikei ends in the ~u vowel. For ichidan verbs, it ends in ~ru ～る.
For na-adjectives, the shuushikei uses the predicative copula da だ. This is the only tricky part, because the term "na-adjectives" comes from the attributive copula na な, which would be the rentaikei 連体形 instead.
For i-adjectives, the shuushikei ends in ~i ～い.
Grammar
The word shuushi 終止 means "stop," in the same sense as the "full stop" symbol, or "period" in American English, which is the dot (.) that you write at the end of sentences. Indeed, the shuushikei is generally used by the last word in a sentence.- {te ni motte-iru} manga wo yomi-hajimeru
手に持っている漫画を読み始める
To start reading the manga [that] {[I] am holding in my hand}.- motte - te-form.
- ~iru - rentaikei.
- yomi - ren'youkei.
- ~hajimeru - shuushikei.
Japanese has two extremely similar basic forms: the shuushikei (predicative form) and the rentaikei (attributive form). The rentaikei is the one that comes before a noun, the shuushikei is the one that doesn't.
- ano hito ga kirei da
あの人が綺麗だ
That person is pretty.- da だ - shuushikei.
- {kirei na} hito
綺麗な人
A person [that] {is pretty}.
A pretty person.- na な - rentaikei.
For ichidan verbs, godan verbs, and i-adjectives, the shuushikei and rentaikei are identical.
- erufu ga mori ni sumu
エルフが森に住む
The elves live in the forest.- sumu - shuushikei.
- {mori ni sumu} erufu
森に住むエルフ
The elves [that] {live in the forest}.
The elves, [which] {live in the forest}.- sumu - rentaikei.
The shuushikei is about syntax, not meaning. The shuushikei of verbs happens to be the non-past form, but that has nothing to do with the term shuushikei.
For instance, the past form is composed by the ren'youkei 連用形 plus the ~ta ～た jodoushi. Syntactically, the ~ta ～た jodoushi has a shuushikei and a rentaikei, too, and they're identical, too.
- hito wo koroshita
人を殺した
Killed a person.- ~ta ～た - shuushikei.
- {koroshita} hito
殺した人
The person [whom] {[someone] killed}.- ~ta ～た - rentaikei.
- ano hito ga kirei datta
あの人が綺麗だった
That person was pretty. - {kirei datta} hito
綺麗だった人
The person [that] {was pretty}.
As you can see, the only difference between the two forms is whether they come before a noun (prenominally), or not. Prenominally, it's rentaikei, otherwise, shuushikei.
Since for most words the two forms are identical, whether you're using the shuushikei or the rentaikei doesn't really matter most of the time. It only matters when you have to decide between using da だ or na な.
Usage
The shuushikei comes before sentence-ending particles and conjunctions in Japanese.For example, it comes before the shi し particle, and the wa わ particle.
- kirei da shi
綺麗だし
[Given that] [it] is pretty. - kirei da wa
綺麗だわ
[It] is pretty.
There are jodoushi that come after the shuushikei of verbs. They are ~ramu ～らむ, ~rashi ～らし, ~beshi ～べし, ~maji ～まじ, ~meri ～めり, and ~nari ～なり. However, most of these are only seen in archaic Japanese, so you don't need to worry about them.
- ninja wa korosu beshi
ニンジャは殺すべし
Ninjas, to kill [one] should.
Ninjas should be killed.
Just in case: the maji マジ you hear nowadays, which means "seriously," is a slang coming from majime 真面目, "earnest," and has nothing to do with the archaic ~maji ～まじ jodoushi. For reference, how the jodoushi ~maji would be used:
- aru maji
あるまじ
[It] shouldn't exist.
[It] shouldn't be.- ~maji - shuushikei.
- aru majiki koui
あるまじき行為
An act [that] {shouldn't exist}.
Something that shouldn't be done.
Acting in improper manner.- ~majiki - rentaikei.
One troublesome thing is that certain words in Japanese, often called formal nouns, are syntactically nouns, but have weird meanings in them that would make you think they aren't actually nouns.
Nevertheless, since they're nouns, you use the rentaikei, not the shuushikei, before them.
- {kirei na} no de
綺麗なので
Because [it] is pretty.- no の - a noun, as far as syntax is concerned.
- kirei da kara
綺麗だから
(basically same meaning.)- kara から - a conjunction.
A simple way to tell whether something is a noun or not is to check whether you can put the shuushikei da だ before it or not. Since you can say da ga だが and da kedo だけど, the words ga が and kedo けど aren't nouns.
Problematically, there are a few words that can be either a noun or a sentence-ending particle. The way the word is used as a noun is different from how it's used as a sentence-ending particle, but at first glance it looks like it's the same thing. Observe:
- {kirei na} mono
綺麗なもの
A thing [that] {is pretty}.
A pretty thing.- Since we used the rentaikei na な here, mono is a noun.
- kirei da mono
綺麗だもの
[Because] [it] is pretty.- Since we used the shuushikei da だ here, mono is no longer a noun.
The noun mono もの means "thing," while the sentence-ending particle mono もの is generally used when the sentence expresses a justification for something.
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