上二段活用

Japanese

Kanji in this term
上	二	段	活	用

Etymology

A compound of 上二段 (kami nidan, “upper dual grade”) and 活用 (katsuyō, “conjugation”). Eventually changes into 上一段活用 (kami ichidan katsuyō) verbs. The "upper" notation refers to the base -i which comes before the "lower" -e in Japanese order.

Noun

上二段活用 (hiragana かみにだんかつよう, romaji kami nidan katsuyō)

1. (grammar) upper dual grade conjugation; a verbal conjugation class which has the following inflections: i/i/u/uru/ure/i[yo]. Dual refers to the two columns (i and u) of the syllabary table that the conjugation occurs in. Dual grade conjugation occurs in literary Japanese, while the same verbs conjugate as Kami-Ichidan (e.g. 落つ-> 落ちる) in colloquial Japanese.

Examples:

	Irrealis	Adverbial	Conclusive	Attributive	Realis	Imperative
ok- "to rise"	ok-i	ok-i	ok-u	ok-uru	ok-ure	ok-i[yo]
sug- "to spend"	sug-i	sug-i	sug-u	sug-uru	sug-ure	sug-i[yo]
ik- "to live"	ik-i	ik-i	ik-u	ik-uru	ik-ure	ik-i[yo]

See also

• 上一段活用 (kami ichidan katsuyō)

Related terms

• 五段活用 (godan katsuyō)
• カ行変格活用 (kagyō henkaku katsuyō)
• 上一段活用 (kami ichidan katsuyō)
• ナ行変格活用 (nagyō henkaku katsuyō)
• ラ行変格活用 (ragyō henkaku katsuyō)
• サ行変格活用 (sagyō henkaku katsuyō)
• 下一段活用 (shimo ichidan katsuyō)
• 下二段活用 (shimo nidan katsuyō)
• 四段活用 (yodan katsuyō)