Can you say Dekiba as in Dekiru (to do) + ば (the suffix for 'be able to do'),
so that dekiba becomes 'if you are able to'?
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2018-08-23T14:44:09.733
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2019-05-10T17:43:12.350
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question
translation conjugations conditionals
Can you say Dekiba
### The short answer

**No** , you can't say _dekiba_. Or rather, you could indeed say that, but
it's not correct and folks might not catch your intended meaning. :)

### The long answer

_Dekiru_ is a so-called "type-2" or "vowel-stem" verb, where the stem of the
vowel (the part that doesn't change when conjugating the different forms) ends
in a vowel: _**deki** ru_ → _**deki** nai_, _**deki** te_, _**deki** masu_,
etc. This is basically the same kind of verb as _taberu_ "to eat" → _**tabe**
ru_, _**tabe** nai_, _**tabe** te_, _**tabe** masu_, etc.

Other verbs are called "type-1" or "consonant-stem" verbs, where the stem ends
in a consonant. A common one you might already know is _kiku_ "to hear, to
listen": _**kik** u_ → _**kik** anai_, _**ki** ite_ (contracted from older
_**kik** ite_), _**kik** imasu_, etc.

The _-ba_ conditional ending requires a special _-e-_ ending on the verb stem,
in addition to any _-e_ that's already there. For consonant-stem verbs like
_kiku_ , you just take the stem _kik-_ , add _-e_ and then the _-ba_ :
_**kik** eba_. For vowel-stem verbs like _dekiru_ or _taberu_ , you need to
add _-re_ as a special kind of stub mora (a mora is kind of like a syllable,
but it's about the rhythm and time it takes to say a word -- this is very
important in Japanese, with its long vowels and geminate (doubled) consonants
-- see <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mora_(linguistics)>). So for _taberu_ ,
you'd take the stem _tabe-_ , add that _-re_ , and then add the _-ba_ : _tabe
**reba**_. Same for _dekiru_ , as _deki-_ + _-re_ + _-ba_ : _deki **reba**_.
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2018-08-23T15:22:46.753
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answer