Potential Form: ～られる, ～える, できる

The Japanese potential form (可能形, kanōkei) is the conjugation that turns a verb meaning "do X" into one meaning "can do X" or "is able to do X."¹² It is the everyday way to talk about ability and possibility in conversation. At N4, it is the first productive conjugation a learner builds directly from the verb-group distinction they already know.³²

Overview

What the potential form expresses

The potential form expresses ability or possibility: the subject can do an action, rather than simply doing it.¹² The auxiliaries れる・られる carry this possibility/ability sense (可能), so 話せる means "can speak" rather than "speak."³

The plain potential (れる・られる for one class, える for another) is the conversational way to say "can do," and it is shorter than the longer ことができる alternative covered later.³²

納豆なっとうが食たべられるの？¹
"Can you eat natto?"

漢字かんじなど書かけますか。⁴
"Can you write kanji and the like?"

Where it sits for N4 learners

This N4 conjugation assumes you already understand the 一段 (ichidan) and 五段 (godan) verb-group distinction, because the potential is built from that classification.³² If those verb-group labels are unfamiliar, learn them first. Everything below depends on knowing which class a verb belongs to.

There are three formation paths to know up front: 一段 verbs take られる, 五段 verbs shift to the え-row and add る, and the two irregulars する→できる and 来る→こられる are memorized.³²

How to form the potential

一段 (ichidan) verbs: drop る, add られる

For a 一段 verb, remove the final る and add られる.³¹²

Dictionary form	Potential form	Reading
食たべる	食たべられる	taberu → taberareru
見みる	見みられる	miru → mirareru

The pattern is mechanical: 食べる → 食べられる,¹² 見る → 見られる.⁵

そこにあるいちごはすべて食たべられる。¹
"You can eat all the strawberries there."

私わたしはここにあまり長ながくいられない。¹
"I can't stay here very long."

五段 (godan) verbs: final -u changes to -eru

For a 五段 verb, change the final う-column kana to its え-column counterpart in the same consonant column, then add る.³¹⁶

Dictionary form	Potential form	Reading
飲のむ	飲のめる	nomu → nomeru
立たつ	立たてる	tatsu → tateru
行いく	行いける	iku → ikeru
読よむ	読よめる	yomu → yomeru
買かう	買かえる	kau → kaeru

Note that 行く becomes 行ける, not 行かれる.⁴⁵

日本語にほんごの本ほんが読よめますか。⁴
"Can you read a Japanese book?"

自転車じてんしゃに乗のれますか。⁴
"Can you ride a bicycle?"

十分じゅっぷん待まてますか。³
"Can you wait ten minutes?"

For 五段 verbs, the potential and passive forms are visibly distinct (言える "can say" versus 言われる "to be said"). That means 五段 verbs do not create the ambiguity that drives ら-抜き later in this article.³

する becomes できる

The potential of する is the suppletive verb できる (出来る): nothing is added to する. The verb is simply replaced.³⁷² For a する-verb, the noun part stays and できる attaches to it, so 勉強する becomes 勉強できる.⁷

日本語にほんごができます。⁷
"I can speak Japanese." (literally "I can do Japanese.")

加藤かとうさんは碁ごができます。⁷
"Mr. Kato can play go."

できる always takes が, never を

With できる, the object is marked with が and never を: 料理ができますか "Can you cook?" is correct, while 料理をできますか is not.³² This is the one strict particle rule in the topic. Everywhere else, the choice is looser, as the next section shows.

できる is not only the potential of する. It is also an independent verb meaning "to be completed, to be made, to come into being." In that sense, it can show composition or completion, which the plain 可能形 cannot.⁷ The example below illustrates that non-potential use. It is drawn from the source's discussion of できる beyond potential, rather than quoted as a fixed sentence.

水みずは酸素さんそと水素すいそからできている。⁷
"Water is made up of oxygen and hydrogen."

来る becomes こられる

The potential of 来る (くる) is 来られる, read こられる.³¹² This is the second irregular, and you memorize it alongside できる.²⁵ The example below illustrates the rule and reading. The sentence itself is constructed rather than quoted.

パーティーに来こられますか。
"Can you come to the party?"

The potential verb is itself 一段

Once formed, every potential verb conjugates as a 一段 (ru-) verb for later forms such as ます, ない, and た, no matter what class the original verb was.³⁶² So 飲める, 行ける, 食べられる, できる, and 来られる all take 一段 endings: 飲めます, 飲めない, 飲めた, and so on.²

This is convenient. You apply the class-specific rule once to build the potential, and from then on a single 一段 conjugation pattern handles everything else.

今日きょうは忙いそがしすぎて、朝あさごはんを食たべられなかった。¹
"Today I was too busy and couldn't eat breakfast."

夜よるは寒さむくて寝ねられない。¹
"The nights are cold and I can't sleep."

The を to が particle shift

Why the object can take が

A potential predicate frames ability as a state rather than as a direct action. Because of that, the thing acted on behaves like the subject of that ability and can take が instead of を.⁶⁸ Imabi describes potential predicates as "ergative-like stative-transitive" and "intransitive-like," meaning the object patterns like a subject.⁸

So パンを食べる "eat bread" becomes パンが食べられる "can eat bread." The を of the plain verb shifts to が under the potential.⁸

韓国語かんこくごが話はなせます。⁸
"I can speak Korean."

美恵子みえこは自然しぜんに美うつくしい歌詞かしが書かけた。⁸
"Mieko was naturally able to write beautiful lyrics."

When を survives

Both が and を are heard with the object of a potential verb, and either particle may mark it.³⁸ Imabi pairs them directly: 韓国語が話せます and 韓国語を話せます both mean "I can speak Korean."⁸

韓国語かんこくごを話はなせます。⁸
"I can speak Korean."

The nuance is one of perspective: を leans toward an agent exercising willful control, while が highlights the object as a natural correlate of the ability. を also appears increasingly in spoken Japanese.⁸ As a working default, treat が as the standard choice and を as a common, accepted variant, rather than treating either as wrong.⁸⁵

The one exception remains できる, which takes only が.² For broader treatment of が versus を, and は versus が, see the dedicated particle articles.

ら-抜き言葉: 見れる instead of 見られる

What ら-抜き is

ら-抜き言葉 (ra-nuki kotoba, "ra-dropping words") is the colloquial loss of ら in the 一段 potential: 食べられる becomes 食べれる, 見られる becomes 見れる, and 来られる becomes 来れる.⁶⁴² It applies to the 一段 potential and to the irregular 来られる. The 五段 potentials (飲める, 行ける) are already ら-less and are unaffected.³⁶

食たべれる⁶
"can eat" (casual, the ら-抜き form of 食べられる)

Why it is convenient (and contested)

Dropping the ら removes ambiguity. It separates the potential 見れる from the passive, honorific, and spontaneous 見られる, which are identical in shape for 一段 verbs. Commentators link the rise of ら-抜き to this drive to make the potential reading unambiguous.³⁶⁹

Even so, ら-抜き is still flagged as nonstandard and "not technically correct" in formal writing; it is avoided in essays and on the JLPT, despite being widespread in speech.³⁶

The scale of use is striking. In the Agency for Cultural Affairs' 2015 survey (文化庁 平成27年度「国語に関する世論調査」), some ら-抜き forms reached a majority for the first time since the survey began in 1995: 見れた drew 48.4% against 44.6% for 見られた, and 出れる drew 45.1% against 44.3% for 出られる.¹⁰⁹

This section is only a scoped introduction. A fuller treatment of ら-抜き standardness, register, and history belongs in the dedicated article on ら-抜き言葉.

Nuance and usage contexts

Potential form vs ことができる

ことができる (dictionary-form verb + ことができる) is another way to express the same ability. It is more formal and more common in writing, while the plain potential れる・られる is shorter and used in conversation.³¹¹ Imabi calls ことができる "arguably more common despite being longer" and a more refined, affirmative pattern.⁷⁵

It also combines freely with verbs, including verbs that resist a plain potential, because it attaches to the dictionary form rather than reconjugating the verb itself.⁷

私わたしは日本語にほんごを話はなすことができます。⁷
"I can speak Japanese."

馬うまに乗のる事ことが出来できる。¹¹
"I can ride a horse."

初はじめて、漢字かんじを書かく事ことが出来できた。¹¹
"I was able to write kanji for the first time."

Watch the particles inside ことができる

The two constructions handle particles differently. With ことができる the original object keeps を before the dictionary verb (日本語を話す), and が marks the nominalized こと. With the plain potential, the object itself may shift to が. So the same sentence is 日本語が話せます on one pattern and 日本語を話すことができます on the other.¹¹⁷

The られる that is not potential

For 一段 verbs, the potential られる has the same shape as three other られる functions: passive, honorific (respectful), and spontaneous. The auxiliaries れる・られる carry all of these uses alongside the potential.³⁶

Because the shapes overlap, only context tells you which reading a 一段 られる form carries. 五段 verbs avoid this problem, because their potential (える) and passive (あれる) are different shapes.³

彼女かのじょの話はなしは信しんじられない。³
"I can't believe her story." (the potential reading of 信じられる)

あの山やまが見みられますか。³
"Can you see that mountain over there?" (the potential reading of 見られる)

Ability, possibility, and circumstance

The potential covers both ability by skill ("I can speak Korean") and possibility by circumstance ("the shop is open, so I can buy it"). The same form spans personal capability and situational feasibility.¹²

One distinction matters enough to single out here: the difference between a grammatical potential and a separate lexical verb of perception (a verb with its own dictionary entry and meaning). 見える ("to be visible") and 聞こえる ("to be audible") are standalone intransitive verbs describing perception that happens naturally, without effort or intent. The grammatical potentials 見られる ("can see, get a chance to view") and 聞ける ("can hear, get to listen") instead describe an ability exercised with conscious effort.¹²²

The shape of this split is easier to see laid out than described:

Bunpro notes that 見える originated from a form of 見る but functions as a standalone intransitive verb in Japanese. That is why it takes a perceived object marked with が.¹² Treating 見える and 聞こえる as if they were the potential of 見る and 聞く is the common confusion this distinction corrects.¹²

この部屋へやからきれいな海うみが見みえます。²
"You can see the beautiful ocean from this room." (natural visibility: 見える, not 見られる)

鳥とりは空そらを飛とべる。⁴
"Birds can fly through the sky." (note を surviving with a motion-path object)

The 聞こえる/聞ける pair mirrors 見える/見られる exactly. 聞こえる is passive audibility, something reaching your ears, while 聞ける is the ability or opportunity to listen.¹²²

Good to know

わかる already means "can understand"

Some verbs are inherently stative, meaning they describe a state, and already carry the "can" sense. So わかれる is not the potential of わかる. わかる already means "to understand, to be understandable," and a separate potential is not formed from it.

分わかる²
"understand / can understand" (the "can" sense is already built in)

When a "can" nuance must be made explicit, ことができる attaches to the dictionary form, as in 知ることができる "to be able to know."² More broadly, non-volitional verbs, including natural phenomena such as 降る, sensation verbs, and verbs ending in -ある, likewise do not form potentials.⁴

見える/聞こえる versus 見られる/聞ける

A second pitfall is using 見える or 聞こえる when you mean an effortful "can," or using 見られる when you mean natural perception. 見える and 聞こえる describe natural, involuntary perception ("is visible," "is audible").¹² 見られる and 聞ける describe an ability or opportunity exercised with intent ("can watch," "can listen").¹²²

The two pairs are easy to blur, but 見える and 聞こえる are distinct intransitive verbs, not the grammatical potential of 見る and 聞く.¹²

ら-抜き (見れる, 食べれる) in writing versus speech

ら-抜き is widespread and, as of the Agency for Cultural Affairs' 2015 survey, a majority form for some verbs in speech.¹⁰⁹ Despite that, it is still flagged as nonstandard, "not technically correct," in formal writing, and it is marked wrong on essays and the JLPT.³⁶ The practical rule: use 見れる freely in casual conversation, but write the full 見られる in anything graded or formal.

A mnemonic for the -eru shift

For any 五段 verb, take the final う-column kana, slide it one row up to the え-row of the same consonant column, and add る: 飲む → 飲め+る, 行く → 行け+る, 買う → 買え+る.³¹² This reuses the same kana-chart navigation you already learned for telling the verb groups apart. There is no new mechanic to memorize, only a new destination row.

See also

• Passive Voice (受身形): Direct and Indirect Passives
• Causative-Passive Form (使役受身): "Was Made to Do" with ～させられる
• ～ことができる: How to Say "Can Do" in Japanese
• Japanese Verb Groups: 一段, 五段, and Irregular
• The が Particle: Subject Marker (and More)

References

Footnotes

1. JLPTsensei.com. "JLPT N4 Grammar: られる (rareru) Japanese Potential Form." https://jlptsensei.com/learn-japanese-grammar/%E3%82%89%E3%82%8C%E3%82%8B-rareru-japanese-potential-form/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

2. Maggie Sensei. "How to use Verb Potential Form (可能形＝かのうけい)." https://maggiesensei.com/2022/04/09/how-to-use-verb-potential-form/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴

3. Bunpro. "Verb［れる・られる］(Potential) (JLPT N4)." Grammar reference. https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/Verb%5Bpotential%5D ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴

4. Imabi. "Potential I: The Potential Form." https://imabi.org/potential-i-the-potential-form/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

5. Tae Kim. "Expressing the potential or possibility of an action (Potential Form)." Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese. https://guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/potential ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. Tofugu. "Japanese Verb Potential れる Form." https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/verb-potential-form-reru/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

7. Imabi. "Potential II: できる." https://imabi.org/potential-ii-%E3%81%A7%E3%81%8D%E3%82%8B/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

8. Imabi. "Object Marking: が VS を." https://imabi.org/ga-vs-wo/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

9. 日本経済新聞 (The Nikkei). 「食べれる・見れる…ら抜き言葉、初の多数派」, reporting the 文化庁 平成27年度 国語に関する世論調査. https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXLASDG21H9K_R20C16A9CR8000/ ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. 文化庁 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). 平成27年度「国語に関する世論調査」(2015 "Public Opinion Survey on the Japanese Language"). https://www.bunka.go.jp/tokei_hakusho_shuppan/tokeichosa/kokugo_yoronchosa/ ↩ ↩²

11. Bunpro. "ことができる (JLPT N4)." Grammar reference. https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8C%E3%81%A7%E3%81%8D%E3%82%8B ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

12. Bunpro. "見える (JLPT N4)." Grammar reference. https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%88%E3%82%8B ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷