払う (harau) conjugation
to pay
払う (はらう, harau) 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 | 払う harau | 払います haraimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 払わない harawanai | 払いません haraimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 払った haratta | 払いました haraimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 払わなかった harawanakatta | 払いませんでした haraimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 払って haratte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 払っている haratteiru | 払っています haratteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 払いたい haraitai | 払いたいです haraitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 払おう haraou | 払いましょう haraimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 払える haraeru | 払えます haraemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 払われる harawareru | 払われます harawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 払わせる harawaseru | 払わせます harawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 払わされる harawasareru | 払わされます harawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 払え harae | 払ってください harattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 払うな harauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 払えば haraeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 払ったら harattara | — | “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.