When students of Japanese ask, “is yobimasu group 1 or 2,” they are usually looking at the polite form yobimasu and wondering which conjugation pattern it follows. Day to day, its dictionary form is yobu (呼ぶ), which means “to call,” and because it ends in a consonant sound (-bu), it follows the Group 1 conjugation rules rather than the Group 2 pattern. Think about it: the short answer is that yobimasu belongs to Group 1, also known as the Godan or consonant-stem verb group. Understanding this distinction is essential for anyone who wants to conjugate Japanese verbs correctly, form the te-form, or build past-tense sentences with confidence.
What Does Yobimasu Mean in Japanese?
The verb yobimasu is the polite, masu-form of yobu. In everyday Japanese, yobu means “to call,” “to summon,” or “to invite.” You might use it when calling someone’s name, calling a friend on the phone, or calling a taxi.
Because yobimasu ends in -imasu, it looks polite and friendly, but that ending does not tell you the verb’s group. To classify a Japanese verb, you must look at its dictionary form, not its polite form. Since the dictionary form is yobu, and yobu ends in the consonant sound bu, it is firmly placed in Group 1.
This is where a lot of people lose the thread.
The Three Japanese Verb Groups Explained
Japanese verbs are traditionally divided into three main groups. Knowing which group a verb belongs to determines how you conjugate it into past tense, negative form, te-form, and other useful patterns.
Group 1 (Godan / Consonant-Stem Verbs)
Group 1 verbs are the most common. Their dictionary forms end in a consonant sound followed by u, such as *-u
