遊ぶ (asobu) conjugation
to play; to spend time pleasantly; to hang out
遊ぶ (あそぶ, asobu) 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 | 遊ぶ asobu | 遊びます asobimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 遊ばない asobanai | 遊びません asobimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 遊んだ asonda | 遊びました asobimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 遊ばなかった asobanakatta | 遊びませんでした asobimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 遊んで asonde | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 遊んでいる asondeiru | 遊んでいます asondeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 遊びたい asobitai | 遊びたいです asobitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 遊ぼう asobou | 遊びましょう asobimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 遊べる asoberu | 遊べます asobemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 遊ばれる asobareru | 遊ばれます asobaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 遊ばせる asobaseru | 遊ばせます asobasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 遊ばされる asobasareru | 遊ばされます asobasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 遊べ asobe | 遊んでください asondekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 遊ぶな asobuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 遊べば asobeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 遊んだら asondara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
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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.