Verb forms

I can't believe that it's September already. I don't know what happened to my summer... well, I do know, but it seems like it went too fast, as always. It's weird for me that I'm not starting school tomorrow. I may be starting sometime in October, but I'm just not sure! Eep!

Anyhow, I realized that I've been using all kinds of verb forms but haven't explained them, so here it goes:

The basic verb form that I've been using (the one my textbook teaches first!) is the present tense polite/neutral affirmative tense. This is the tense I've been listing my vocabulary in, and they all end in -masu.

For example:

oyogimasu - swim

kaimasu - buy

kaerimasu - go/come back

(Also, though I've been listing them in infinitive form, this is not actually how they translate, it's just for my own purposes so I know that they're verbs, not nouns. Like, is 'nomimasu' a verb or a noun? If I listed it just as 'drink' I might get confused. Well, not now that I know that -masu is a verb ending. But still.)

To make this into negative form (still polite/neutral and present tense), you change the -masu ending to -masen.

For example:

ikimasen - do not go

kimasen - do not come

tabemasen - do not eat

To change your verbs into past tense (polite/neutral and affirmative), you change the -masu ending to -mashita:

kimashita - bought

ikimashita - went

kaerimashita - returned/came back

The verb ending -mashoo indicates 'let's'.

For example:

tabemashoo - let's eat

Oosaka e ikimashoo. - Let's go to Osaka.

Ocha o nomimashoo - Let's drink tea.