縮む (chijimu) conjugation
to shrink, to be contracted
縮む (ちぢむ, chijimu) 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 | 縮む chijimu | 縮みます chijimimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 縮まない chijimanai | 縮みません chijimimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 縮んだ chijinda | 縮みました chijimimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 縮まなかった chijimanakatta | 縮みませんでした chijimimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 縮んで chijinde | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 縮んでいる chijindeiru | 縮んでいます chijindeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 縮みたい chijimitai | 縮みたいです chijimitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 縮もう chijimou | 縮みましょう chijimimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 縮める chijimeru | 縮めます chijimemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 縮まれる chijimareru | 縮まれます chijimaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 縮ませる chijimaseru | 縮ませます chijimasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 縮まされる chijimasareru | 縮まされます chijimasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 縮め chijime | 縮んでください chijindekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 縮むな chijimuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 縮めば chijimeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 縮んだら chijindara | — | “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.