始める (hajimeru) conjugation
to start, to begin
始める (はじめる, hajimeru) is an ichidan verb. Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes. 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 | 始める hajimeru | 始めます hajimemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 始めない hajimenai | 始めません hajimemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 始めた hajimeta | 始めました hajimemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 始めなかった hajimenakatta | 始めませんでした hajimemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 始めて hajimete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 始めている hajimeteiru | 始めています hajimeteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 始めたい hajimetai | 始めたいです hajimetaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 始めよう hajimeyou | 始めましょう hajimemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 始められる hajimerareru | 始められます hajimeraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 始められる hajimerareru | 始められます hajimeraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 始めさせる hajimesaseru | 始めさせます hajimesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 始めさせられる hajimesaserareru | 始めさせられます hajimesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 始めろ hajimero | 始めてください hajimetekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 始めるな hajimeruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 始めれば hajimereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 始めたら hajimetara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
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Why it conjugates this way
Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes.
See the full rules on the verb conjugation guide.
