58101
I learned that the reason why て and た forms conjugate the way they do is
because of a phenomenon known as 音便. And I know that 音便 happens because it's
easier to say the word this way.

However, _what_ is easier to say with 音便? For example, 使って has been 音便される,
right? S what would it have been if 音便 did not occur?

My guess is that it must be one of the six forms (連体、連用、終止、未然、仮定、命令) + て, with
the 連体 and 連用 being the most probable. My guess would be something like 使いて or
使うて. Are my guesses right?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-23T12:42:17.103
52631
2018-04-23T07:04:16.447
18200
question
conjugations て-form phonetics
What does the て and た forms look like before 音便?
Please see [this chart](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/17497/5010) for
the non-音便 version. As you can see, this type of 音便 appears in the te/ta-form
of most consonant-stem (aka godan) verbs.

Actually these non-音便 version was commonly used in classical Japanese, and is
still used as part of the polite masu-form. For example, 使って was 使 **い** て in
classical Japanese (or 使ひて in [the historical kana
orthography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_kana_orthography)). This
使っ is a 連用形 of 使う. Japanese people think 使い and 使っ are the two variations of
連用形, the latter being the 音便 version of the former. See [this
question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/36310/5010) for more details.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-23T06:59:00.750
58101
2018-04-23T07:04:16.447
2018-04-23T07:04:16.447
5010
5010
52631
answer