微笑む (hohoemu) conjugation
to smile
微笑む (ほほえむ, hohoemu) 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 | 微笑む hohoemu | 微笑みます hohoemimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 微笑まない hohoemanai | 微笑みません hohoemimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 微笑んだ hohoenda | 微笑みました hohoemimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 微笑まなかった hohoemanakatta | 微笑みませんでした hohoemimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 微笑んで hohoende | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 微笑んでいる hohoendeiru | 微笑んでいます hohoendeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 微笑みたい hohoemitai | 微笑みたいです hohoemitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 微笑もう hohoemou | 微笑みましょう hohoemimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 微笑める hohoemeru | 微笑めます hohoememasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 微笑まれる hohoemareru | 微笑まれます hohoemaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 微笑ませる hohoemaseru | 微笑ませます hohoemasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 微笑まされる hohoemasareru | 微笑まされます hohoemasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 微笑め hohoeme | 微笑んでください hohoendekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 微笑むな hohoemuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 微笑めば hohoemeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 微笑んだら hohoendara | — | “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.