The te-form: Group 2 and irregular verbs

The te-form is not a tense. It does not mean present or past by itself. It connects a verb to another action or to an ending that adds meaning. You will soon use it with ください and います.

For Group 2 verbs, remove the final る from the dictionary form and add て.

One use is to connect actions in a sequence: 起おきて、コーヒー を 飲のみます means “I get up and then drink coffee.” The final verb gives the sentence its tense and politeness. This connects actions, unlike と when it joins nouns.