The Volitional: ～よう

The volitional—or more simply the “let’s “and “shall” form—helps us create a number of different phrases. Unlike the potential, there is no past and negative to confuse matters; only standard form and polite form. I’ll briefly talk about how we might form the phrase “Let’s not [do something]” in Japanese at the end, but unlike the standard affirmative volitional (being introduced here), the negative volitional does not use a unique verb conjugation, and instead relies on more “advanced” grammar.

First, let’s see how the verb conjugates into the affirmative volitional.

Group 1

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

あ	い	う	え	お
か	き	く	け	こ
さ	し	す	せ	そ
…	…	…	…	…

Taking the verb “to write” (かく) again as our example:

かく	かこ	かこう
Take the verb	Change the く to a こ	Add う

書かこう means “let’s write”. Some more examples:

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. Let’s take “to eat” as an example:

たべる	たべ	たべよう
Take the verb	Remove the る	Add よう

Some other Group 2 verbs:

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

する and くる actually behave like Group 2 verbs in this case, but note that pronunciation of the く to こ in くる.

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

The Auxiliary Verb

The volitional form of the auxiliary verb 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.

Verb	Dictionary	Volitional
to be	だ	だろう

The Polite Form

For all verbs, to create the polite form of the volition we take 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
to come	来くる	来き〜	来きましょう

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!

By adding the question particle to the volitional ending we can change “let’s” to “shall we”, 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

But 〜ましょうか is not just used for inclusive suggestions (“Shall we?”). It is also the standard way to offer assistance to someone, translating to “Shall I?”.

荷物にもつを持もちましょうか？

Shall I carry your luggage?

窓まどを閉しめましょうか？

Shall I close the window?

Other Uses

The below is a very common structure.

【Standard form volitional】と思おもう

Unlike the same sentence with the standard form of the verb (which sounds like a simple prediction: “I think I will…”), the use of the volitional expresses your intention or resolution. It translates closer to “I am thinking of [doing]…”. Because it expresses internal will, it is unnatural to use the volitional with と思う when the subject of the sentence is not yourself (like we saw when conjugated verbs to express “want”).

転職てんしょくしようと思おもいます。

I am thinking of changing jobs.

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 I wonder if I should go to the beauty salon…

The Negative Volitional

As mentioned above, to create a negative volition (“let’s not”) we need to switch grammar and use the te-form with the verb おく, which means to “leave something as is” or “do something in advance”. The te-form in particular is absolutely fundamental Japanese grammar and will be introduced soon. For the time being, I will just give a few simple example sentences.

行いかないでおこう。

Let’s not go (literally: “Let’s not go and leave it in that state”)

買かわないでおこう。

Let’s not buy it (literally: “Let’s not buy it and then leave it in that state”)

For completeness, there is also the more literary grammar ～まい, but that is JLPT N2 grammar and will be introduced much later.