開ける (akeru) conjugation
to open (v.t.)
開ける (あける, akeru) is an ichidan verb. Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes. Every form below is tappable — hear it, then say it back.
Conjugation table
| Form | Plain (casual) | Polite (~ます) | When you use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary / plain | 開ける akeru | 開けます akemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 開けない akenai | 開けません akemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 開けた aketa | 開けました akemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 開けなかった akenakatta | 開けませんでした akemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 開けて akete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 開けている aketeiru | 開けています aketeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 開けたい aketai | 開けたいです aketaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 開けよう akeyou | 開けましょう akemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 開けられる akerareru | 開けられます akeraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 開けられる akerareru | 開けられます akeraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 開けさせる akesaseru | 開けさせます akesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 開けさせられる akesaserareru | 開けさせられます akesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 開けろ akero | 開けてください aketekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 開けるな akeruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 開ければ akereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 開けたら aketara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
🔊 Tap any Japanese word to hear it spoken.
Why it conjugates this way
Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes.
See the full rules on the verb conjugation guide.