Polite Informal

We use the polite informal when talking with peers; most ordinary conversation will take place in the polite informal.

Now relax and take a deep breath. To figure out the correct endings for a polite informal verb, we're going to need to make quite a few decisions. At first this is going to take a long time to figure out how to say a verb while you work through the steps. After practice, it will be almost automatic (trust me -- it really will be).

Step 1

Look at the stem of the verb.

If it ends with , change it to , and you're finished.
If it doesn't end with , proceed to step 2.
Example

Verb Stem Result

(to do) -

Verb	Stem	Result
(to do)	-

Step 2

Look at the last vowel of the stem.

If it is a or , add . If you end up with two vowels right next to each other, combine them into one vowel.
Otherwise, proceed to step 3.
Examples:

Verb Stem Add Result

(to go) - +

(to see) - +

(to be good) - +

Verb	Stem	Add
(to go)	-	+
(to see)	-	+
(to be good)	-	+

Step 3

In all other cases:

Add . Again, if you end up with two vowels next to each other, they will contract into one vowel.
Examples:

Verb Stem Add Result

(to learn) - +

(to teach) - +

(to have) - +

Verb	Stem	Add
(to learn)	-	+
(to teach)	-	+
(to have)	-	+

Take another deep breath, and congratulate yourself for having made it through this page, which is probably the most complicated one in the whole tutorial!