連用形

Compound of 連用 (ren'yō, “attaching to an inflecting word”, where 用 (yō) is short for 用言 (yōgen, “inflecting word”)) +‎ 形 (kei, “form”).[1][2]

• On’yomi: Kan’on
  • (Tokyo) れんよーけー [rèń'yóókéé] (Heiban – [0])[2][3][4]
  • IPA^(key): [ɾẽ̞ɰ̃jo̞ːke̞ː]

連用形 (hiragana れんようけい, rōmaji ren'yōkei)

1. (grammar) an inflectional category: the conjunctive or stem form

   This is the base form after which various conjugational endings are added, such as て (te) or ます (masu). See Appendix:Japanese verbs for more details.

As a term describing an inherently Japanese grammatical form, 連用形 is sometimes simply transliterated. When rendered into English, the term has been translated different ways by different authors. Alternate glosses include:

• adverbial
• base form
• conjunctional
• continuative
• deverbal noun
• infinitive
• stem form

• 已 (い)然 (ぜん)形 (けい) (izenkei, “realis”)
• 仮 (か)定 (てい)形 (けい) (kateikei, “conditional”)
• 終 (しゅう)止 (し)形 (けい) (shūshikei, “conclusive”)
• 未 (み)然 (ぜん)形 (けい) (mizenkei, “irrealis”)
• 命 (めい)令 (れい)形 (けい) (meireikei, “imperative”)
• 連 (れん)体 (たい)形 (けい) (rentaikei, “attributive”)

• Sandness, Karen (1999) The Evolution of the Japanese Past and Perfective suffixes, Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, →ISBN, pages 3, 12, 42, others
• Henderson, Harold Gould (1948) Handbook of Japanese Grammar, Houghton Mifflin Co., page 12
• Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Volume 6, University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1932, page 643