The potential form: saying what you can and cannot do

There are two common ways to express ability in Japanese, and both appear at N4 and in JFT-Basic.

Method one: the potential form

Group	Rule	Example
2 (る-verbs)	drop ます, add られます	たべます → たべられます
1 (う-verbs)	change the い-row to the え-row	のみます → のめます, いきます → いけます
Irregular	-	します → できます, きます → こられます

Group 1 is the common one and the pattern is regular once you see it: かきます → かけます, はなします → はなせます, よみます → よめます.

Method one and a half: ら-dropping

In casual speech, られます often loses the ら: 食べられる → 食べれる.

You will hear this constantly. It is not considered correct in writing or in exams, so recognise it but do not produce it in a test.

Method two: ～ことができます

Add ことができます to the dictionary form:

日本語を 話すことが できます。- I can speak Japanese.

Slightly more formal and more emphatic than the potential form. Both are correct; the potential form is more common in speech.

The particle change everybody gets wrong

When a verb becomes potential, the object particle を usually changes to が:

• パンを 食べます → パンが 食べられます
• 日本語を 話します → 日本語が 話せます

This is tested. If you remember one thing from this page, remember が.

(を is heard in casual speech and is not counted as correct on exams. Use が.)

Negatives and past

• 食べられません / 食べられなかったです - cannot / could not
• 話せません / 話せませんでした

The negative potential is extremely useful at work: すみません、わかりません is basic, but 読めません (I cannot read it) and 聞こえません (I cannot hear it) are more precise and more useful.

Related verbs worth knowing

• できます - can do (also “is completed”, and “is made of”)
• 見えます / 聞こえます - can be seen / can be heard, in the sense of something being visible or audible without effort. Different from 見られます / 聞けます, which imply opportunity.

That distinction appears in N4 and is worth a few minutes: 富士山が 見えます (the mountain is visible) against 映画が 見られます (I can watch the film).

Practise it about yourself

Ten sentences about what you can and cannot do, out loud:

漢字が 少し 読めます。ひらがなは 全部 書けます。まだ 早い 日本語が 聞き取れません。

That last kind of sentence - what you cannot yet do - is also the most useful thing you can say to a supervisor in your first month: your first month of Japanese at work.