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Can someone explain to me in colloquial term the difference between plain-
form（普通形【ふつうけい】） and dictionary-form（辞書形【じしょけい】）of the verbs? As far as I can
tell there is no difference between the two but my school book says plain-form
and dictionary-form separately.

I would really appreciate it if someone can clear this up for me. Thanks.
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2017-09-07T06:31:57.660
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conjugations
What is the difference between plain form and dictionary form of the verbs?
My guess is that your book talks of "plain-form" when is referring to a style
of speech. For example, in casual conversation you use the _plain-form_ as
opposed to the "polite-form" (普通形{ふつうけい} and 丁寧形{ていねいけい} respectively in
Japanese).

In some cases this happens to be the same as the dictionary-form or
辞書形｛じしょけい｝. Specifically in the non-past and positive case:

For example:

> **Polite** : 学校に行きます。
>
> **Casual** : 学校 **行く** 。

In the second case you're using a plain-form that _happens to be_ just the
dictionary form. So there is no difference here.

However, in general the "plain-form" could be really anything. That is,
whatever the conjugation of the verb you still call it "plain form". Using the
same example as above:

> **Polite** : 昨日、学校に行きませんでした。
>
> **Casual** : 昨日、学校 **行かなかった** 。

So in this second example, the verb is in the the _negative past plain form_.
So you notice that although this is still called "plain-form" it is not the
same as the dictionary form in this case (the latter being 行く of course).

So, to resume:

**Dictionary form** : is the form of the verb as it is found in the dictionary
(not surprisingly).

**Plain form** : it indicates a form of the verb that is generally used in
casual/non-formal conversations and it includes present/past and
affirmative/negative conjugations (in other words dictionary/root form, -nai,
-ta, and -nakatta forms).

You can see more
[here](https://www.coscom.co.jp/japaneseverb/japaneseverb01-jpr.html).
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2017-09-07T06:24:33.767
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If you refer to 普通形{ふつうけい} as plain form, you should know that 辞書形{じしょけい} is
part of the 普通形{ふつうけい} as the less polite equivalent to the マス形{けい}.
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