The volitional—or more simply the “let’s “and “shall” form—helps us create a number of different phrases.

Group 1

Take the dictionary form and skip two columns to the right to change to an “o” ending character and add う.

かく　⇒　か＋こう　⇒　かこう

Verb	Dictionary	Volitional
to read	読よむ	読よもう
to wait	待まつ	待まとう
to go	行いく	行いこう
to say	言いう	言いおう

Group 2

For group 2 we simply take the verb stem and add よう.

たべる　⇒　たべ〜　⇒　たべよう

Verb	Dictionary	Stem	Volitional
to eat	食たべる	食たべ〜	食たべよう
to leave	出でる	出で〜	出でよう
to see	見みる	見み〜	見みよう
to exist	いる	い〜	いよう

Group 3

Verb	Dictionary	Volitional
to do	する	しよう
to come	来くる	来こよう

The Auxiliary Verb

Verb	Dictionary	Volitional
to be	だ	だろう

The volitional form of the auxiliary verb, だろう, doesn’t translate directly in English. The nuance is one of supposition—consequently we’ll deal with it separately in a later section. I’m including it here just to show you how it conjugates.

The Polite Form

For all verbs, to create the polite form of the volition we stake the verb stem and add ましょう.

Verb	Dictionary	Stem	Volitional
to go	行いく	行いき〜	行いきましょう
to see	見みる	見み〜	見みましょう
to do	する	し〜	しましょう

The only exception is the auxiliary verb.

Verb	Dictionary	Volitional
to be	です	でしょう

As mentioned we will look at this form of the auxiliary in another article.

電話でんわで話はなしましょう。

Let’s speak on the phone.

午後ごご８時じに待まち合あわせましょう。

Let’s meet at 8pm.

もう一回いっかいやりましょうよ！

Let’s do it once more!

The particle よ can be added for emphasis.

By adding the question particle to the volitional ending we can change “let’s” to “shall” and we have another way to make a suggestion.

映画えいがを見みましょうか？

Shall we watch a movie?

今週末こんしゅうまつは鎌倉かまくらに行いきましょうか？

Shall we go to Kamakura this weekend?

それが可能かのうかを確認かくにんしましょうか？

Shall we make sure whether that’s possible?

Note the embedded question to form this sentence

転職てんしょくしようと思おもいます。

To think about changing jobs.

This structure…

【Volitional】と思おもう

… is very common. Unlike the same sentence with the standard form of the verb (e.g. “I think I will…”), the use of the volitional adds an element of “wondering”, as if you’re not even sure yourself if you’ll do it or not. Because of this, it is unnatural to use the volitional with と思う when the subject of the sentence is not yourself.

Finally, I’ll introduce the syllabic combination かな. It is very often appended to the standard form of the volitional to create a sort of rhetorical question that lets the listener know what you’re thinking or pondering. Because it is not a question it does not demand a response.

何なにを注文ちゅうもんしようかな。

I wonder what shall I order…

明日あしたは美容院びよういんに行いこうかな。

Tomorrow shall I go to the beauty salon…