連用形(れんようけい)Formal Conjunctive

In Japanese, the conjunctive form is often called 'the ます form', or 'the conjunctive form'. 'The conjunctive form' is much more accurate, as it is used with more than just verbs. Basically, the conjunctive form is the form of any word that will be used in standard conjugation with other structures. For い-Adjectives, this is the form that uses く, for verbs, the ます stem.

The reason that conjunctive form is sometimes referred to as 'the formal conjunctive' is due to its use before a comma. Usually, the conjunction particle て would be used to separate clauses in sentences, however, the formal conjunctive allows this to be done without て. Let's look at some examples.

As we can see, although て is not required, a 読点(とうてん) (Japanese comma) will be required to prevent the sentence from becoming confusing.

Caution

This type of conjugation is seen primarily in formal writing, and the standard て form will be heard much more frequently in daily speech.