Many Japanese learners focus on memorising vocabulary. But in Japanese, verb conjugation is the key to expressing many ideas. I like to imagine Japanese verbs as a tree. The dictionary form is the trunk of the tree. From the trunk, many branches grow: て form ない form potential form passive form causative form....... And from those branches, more expressions grow — like leaves and flowers . For example: 食べる (to eat) → trunk 食べて (te-form) → branch Then you can add expression