引っ掻く (hikkaku) conjugation
to scratch
引っ掻く (ひっかく, hikkaku) 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 | 引っ掻く hikkaku | 引っ掻きます hikkakimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 引っ掻かない hikkakanai | 引っ掻きません hikkakimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 引っ掻いた hikkaita | 引っ掻きました hikkakimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 引っ掻かなかった hikkakanakatta | 引っ掻きませんでした hikkakimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 引っ掻いて hikkaite | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 引っ掻いている hikkaiteiru | 引っ掻いています hikkaiteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 引っ掻きたい hikkakitai | 引っ掻きたいです hikkakitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 引っ掻こう hikkakou | 引っ掻きましょう hikkakimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 引っ掻ける hikkakeru | 引っ掻けます hikkakemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 引っ掻かれる hikkakareru | 引っ掻かれます hikkakaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 引っ掻かせる hikkakaseru | 引っ掻かせます hikkakasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 引っ掻かされる hikkakasareru | 引っ掻かされます hikkakasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 引っ掻け hikkake | 引っ掻いてください hikkaitekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 引っ掻くな hikkakuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 引っ掻けば hikkakeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 引っ掻いたら hikkaitara | — | “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.