A Beginners Guide To Potential Form: "Can & Can't" Pt.2 **日本語学習** (Learn Japanese FAST!)

In my other can & can't video I presented a single multi-purpose phrase that can be augmented into any ability to do or not to do simply by changing the verb in the sentence. I specifically offered that first because it's grammar is, I think, easier for English natives to grasp. And the meat & potatoes of the phrase never changes. You just insert verb.
This time, it gets slightly hairy. This is what's known as 'potential' form. Although it's less of a mouthful & probably more common to see used, it requires some familiarity with the three verb types and how they conjugate.
If you are NOT familiar with the three kinds of Japanese verbs and how they work, I urge you to please watch my video on verbs & masu form first. It'll make the concepts in this video a lot easier to understand.
Let's start with the irregular verbs since there are only two of them: suru which means (to do) becomes "dekiru" - a great blanket word for "can" all around. If you only remember one thing about 'can' in Japanese it should be this. "Dekiru" = 'Can' and Dekinai is the negative, "can't".
And the second irregular verb is 'kuru' which means (to come), it changes to "koreru"
The next group of verbs are called U-verbs. What you're going to do is drop the "-u" and add "eru" It's as simple as that.
The last group of verbs are "-ru" verbs. The idea is very similar here. Usually you can tell when a verb is a ru verb because it ends in either "eru" or "iru" although, there are exeptions, they're fairly rare. 'shiru' & 'kaeru' would be notable mentions because they are commonly used. Conjugating "ru" verbs is really easy, you simply drop the "ru" and add "rareru"
NOTE: In informal conversation, "ra" is often dropped from potential form of RU-verbs. For example, "mireru" and "tabereru" instead of "mirareru" and "taberareru."
Once you augment any of these verbs into their potential form they conjugate just like "ru" verbs. So in order to use 'masu', simply drop the 'ru' ending and add 'masu'.
And if you want to specify just what it is you can or cannot do then we see the 'wo' particle I talked about in my "having things" video come back into play.
Object + wo + potential verb. That's it! See? Not rocket science.
So, some examples, the verb hanasu which means 'to speak' drop the 'u' add eru and it becomes 'hanaseru' meaning "can speak"
If you want to alter this to negative 'masu' form just drop the 'ru' from the end and add 'masen' which makes it negative.
Watashi wa nihongo wo hanasemasen. (I can't speak Japanese.)
As I've said in my other videos, using pronouns isn't always necessary in Japanese so the 'Watashi wa' portion of the sentence can be dropped when it's clear that you're talking about yourself. Such as..
Nihongo wo kakemasen. (I can't write Japanese.)
Kani wo taberaremasen. (I can't eat crab.)
'masen' is the polite negative. The informal version is 'nai'
So these same phrases again would look like this:
Nihongo wo hanasenai. (I can't speak Japanese.)
Kani wo taberarenai. (I can't eat crab.)
They mean exactly the same thing, except one is politer.
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