Here is my attempt at giving everyone a system to remember one of the most important grammatical rules in Japanese, the te form! As a bonus this can help you make the past form as well (of plain form verbs).
If you can remember all 13 words in this video, then every single verb in Japanese will be accounted for!
はなす
かく
およぐ
のむ
あそぶ
しぬ
かう
まつ
ある
たべる
する
くる
いく
The 13 words are broken down into some groups, broadly these are the three groups of RU, U and Exception Verbs.
By looking at the example word, you’ll see how a verb of the same type and ending will change into the te form.
RU Verbs
Pretty easy, there is only one entry, たべる goes to たべて
U Verbs
9 words in total in this entry, which are in 4 subgroups.
Subgroup 1
はなす goes to はなして
Subgroup 2
かく かいて
およぐ およいで
Subgroup 3
These end in む・ぶ・ぬ and result in those respective hiragana going to んで
のむ
あそぶ
しぬ
のんで
あそんで
しんで
Subgroup 4
These end in う・つ・る
かう
まつ
ある
かって
まって
あって
Exceptions
Only three items here, our usual suspects of する、くる and the extra inclusion of いく (to go). These just have to be memorised. If you consider いく, as it ends in く it would normally follow the U Verb Subcategory 2 example of かく, however as mentioned it is an exception so いって
する して
くる きて
いく いって
