合う (au) conjugation
to fit, to match
合う (あう, au) 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 | 合う au | 合います aimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 合わない awanai | 合いません aimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 合った atta | 合いました aimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 合わなかった awanakatta | 合いませんでした aimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 合って atte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 合っている atteiru | 合っています atteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 合いたい aitai | 合いたいです aitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 合おう aou | 合いましょう aimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 合える aeru | 合えます aemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 合われる awareru | 合われます awaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 合わせる awaseru | 合わせます awasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 合わされる awasareru | 合わされます awasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 合え ae | 合ってください attekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 合うな auna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 合えば aeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 合ったら attara | — | “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.