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