Expressions of Ability and Potential Verbs in Japanese

In written and spoken Japanese, the concepts of ability and potential can be expressed in two different ways. It will depend upon whom you're speaking with to determine which verb form you're going to use. 

The potential form of a verb can be used to communicate the ability to do something. It may also be used to ask for something, as English speakers often do with a similar construct.

How to express Potential Verbs in Japanese

For example, the speaker of the question "can you buy the tickets?" probably doesn't doubt that the person he is speaking to is physically able to buy the tickets. It's intended to ask whether the person has enough money, or whether the person will take care of this task on the speaker's behalf. 

In Japanese, attaching the phrase koto ga dekiru （～ことができる）after the basic form of the verb is one way to express ability or qualification to do something. Literally translated, koto（こと）means "thing," and "dekiru"（できる）" means "can do."  So adding this phrase is like saying "I can do this thing," referring back to the main verb. 

The formal form of koto ga dekiru（～ことができる）is koto ga dekimasu（～ことができます), and its past tense is koto ga dekita (~ koto ga dekimashita).

Here are some examples:

 dekiru （～できる） can be directly attached to a noun, if a verb is closely associated with its direct object. For instance:

Then there's what's known as a verb's "potential" form. Here are some examples of how to form a potential version of a Japanese verb:

In informal conversation, ra （～ら）is often dropped from the potential form of verbs ending in -ru. For example, mireru （見れる）and tabereru （食べれる）would be used instead of mirareru （見られる） and taberareru （食べられる).

The potential form of the verb can be replaced with the form using  koto ga dekiru （～ことができる. It is more colloquial and less formal to use the potential form of the verb.

Examples of Translating Ability or Potential  into Japanese Verb Forms