洗う (arau) conjugation
to wash
洗う (あらう, arau) is a godan verb. Godan verbs change their final kana up and down its column of the kana chart — the a-row for negatives, the i-row before ます, the e-row for potential and ば. 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 | 洗う arau | 洗います araimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 洗わない arawanai | 洗いません araimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 洗った aratta | 洗いました araimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 洗わなかった arawanakatta | 洗いませんでした araimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 洗って aratte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 洗っている aratteiru | 洗っています aratteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 洗いたい araitai | 洗いたいです araitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 洗おう araou | 洗いましょう araimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 洗える araeru | 洗えます araemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 洗われる arawareru | 洗われます arawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 洗わせる arawaseru | 洗わせます arawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 洗わされる arawasareru | 洗わされます arawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 洗え arae | 洗ってください arattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 洗うな arauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 洗えば araeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 洗ったら arattara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
🔊 Tap any Japanese word to hear it spoken.
Why it conjugates this way
Godan verbs change their final kana up and down its column of the kana chart — the a-row for negatives, the i-row before ます, the e-row for potential and ば.
See the full rules on the verb conjugation guide.