控える (hikaeru) conjugation
to hold back; to make notes
控える (ひかえる, hikaeru) 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 | 控える hikaeru | 控えます hikaemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 控えない hikaenai | 控えません hikaemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 控えた hikaeta | 控えました hikaemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 控えなかった hikaenakatta | 控えませんでした hikaemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 控えて hikaete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 控えている hikaeteiru | 控えています hikaeteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 控えたい hikaetai | 控えたいです hikaetaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 控えよう hikaeyou | 控えましょう hikaemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 控えられる hikaerareru | 控えられます hikaeraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 控えられる hikaerareru | 控えられます hikaeraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 控えさせる hikaesaseru | 控えさせます hikaesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 控えさせられる hikaesaserareru | 控えさせられます hikaesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 控えろ hikaero | 控えてください hikaetekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 控えるな hikaeruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 控えれば hikaereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 控えたら hikaetara | — | “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.