How To Make Japanese Commands For Dummies!

(Please note that this is a very simplistic guide to making release commands. I made it so you don’t need to have any previous knowledge in Japanese, but because of that this will only cover one-word release commands of simple verbs. If you need help with anything more complex, just contact me.)

1) Go to : it’s one of the most complete English-Japanese dictionaries on the web and is for the most part very accurate. Make sure you’re on the tab labeled “Word Search/Home” and that the dictionary option is “Jpn-Eng General (JDICT)”. These are both the defaults and you shouldn’t have to change them anyways.

2) Click the checkboxes labeled “Restrict to common words [EDICT only]”. Then, type in a single word or simple phrase (1-2 words at max) that is the verb you’re looking for as a command and search it. For the sake of this tutorial, I’ll choose “extend.”

3) Now, scroll through the entries you’ve received. (It’s likely that some of them are duplicates.) Read the definitions and sample sentences they give you and figure out which one is the best for what you’re asking. Characters with a (P) next to them are the most common variants of that verb, so look at those. For example, my search for “extend” resulted in these first four entries:

差し伸べる【さしのべる】 (v1,vt) (1) to hold out; to extend (e.g. one's hands); to stretch; to reach out for; (2) to thrust (javelin); (3) to offer (e.g. aid, help, etc.);
及ぶ 【およぶ】 (v5b,vi) (1) to reach; to amount to; to befall; to happen to; to extend; (2) to be up to the task; to come up to; (3) to compare with; to be a match (for); (4) to commit (a crime); (5) to require (to do) (usu. used in the negative);
渡る【わたる】 (v5r,vi) (1) to cross over; to go across; (2) to extend; to cover; to range; to span;
広げる【ひろげる】 (v1,vt) to spread; to extend; to expand; to enlarge; to widen; to broaden; to unfold; to open; to unroll;

I like the idea of “extend” like in “extend your wings,” so I think in context that広げる will work the best. Now that we have our verb, though, we need to put it into the command form.

4) Open up a new tab and go to Google Translate. Copy the hiragana reading (the characters in the 【】 ) into the left-hand field. Then, read off what it gives you below that box. Mine is “hirogeru”.

5) Here comes the fun part – conjugating your verb. Remember the search you made for your verb before? Look at the information in the parentheses directly to the right of the hiragana. There should be either “v1,” “v5” followed by a letter, or “vk”. These are three of the major types of verbs in the Japanese language: ichidan or “-ru” verbs, godan or “-u” verbs, and the irregular verb “kuru” (to come). (There is another type of verbs, “suru” class, but these aren’t actual verbs in terms of what we’re looking for and should be avoided.) Now that you know, apply the following rules based on what type of verb you have:

v1 – Drop the final “u” from the Romanized translation and replace it with an “o” (hirogeru -> hirogero).
v5 – Drop the final “u” from the Romanized translation and replace it with an “e” (oyobu -> oyobe).
vk – Turn the final “kuru” into “koi”.

6) There! You have a Romanized translation for a shikai release command. My previous example, “Extend!”, is now “Hirogero!” If you have any questions, just post.