誓う (chikau) conjugation
to swear, to vow
誓う (ちかう, chikau) 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 | 誓う chikau | 誓います chikaimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 誓わない chikawanai | 誓いません chikaimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 誓った chikatta | 誓いました chikaimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 誓わなかった chikawanakatta | 誓いませんでした chikaimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 誓って chikatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 誓っている chikatteiru | 誓っています chikatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 誓いたい chikaitai | 誓いたいです chikaitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 誓おう chikaou | 誓いましょう chikaimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 誓える chikaeru | 誓えます chikaemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 誓われる chikawareru | 誓われます chikawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 誓わせる chikawaseru | 誓わせます chikawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 誓わされる chikawasareru | 誓わされます chikawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 誓え chikae | 誓ってください chikattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 誓うな chikauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 誓えば chikaeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 誓ったら chikattara | — | “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.