励む (hagemu) conjugation
to be zealous, to make an effort
励む (はげむ, hagemu) 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 | 励む hagemu | 励みます hagemimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 励まない hagemanai | 励みません hagemimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 励んだ hagenda | 励みました hagemimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 励まなかった hagemanakatta | 励みませんでした hagemimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 励んで hagende | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 励んでいる hagendeiru | 励んでいます hagendeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 励みたい hagemitai | 励みたいです hagemitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 励もう hagemou | 励みましょう hagemimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 励める hagemeru | 励めます hagememasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 励まれる hagemareru | 励まれます hagemaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 励ませる hagemaseru | 励ませます hagemasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 励まされる hagemasareru | 励まされます hagemasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 励め hageme | 励んでください hagendekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 励むな hagemuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 励めば hagemeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 励んだら hagendara | — | “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.