彫る (horu) conjugation
to carve, to chisel
彫る (ほる, horu) 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 | 彫る horu | 彫ります horimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 彫らない horanai | 彫りません horimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 彫った hotta | 彫りました horimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 彫らなかった horanakatta | 彫りませんでした horimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 彫って hotte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 彫っている hotteiru | 彫っています hotteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 彫りたい horitai | 彫りたいです horitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 彫ろう horou | 彫りましょう horimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 彫れる horeru | 彫れます horemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 彫られる horareru | 彫られます horaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 彫らせる horaseru | 彫らせます horasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 彫らされる horasareru | 彫らされます horasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 彫れ hore | 彫ってください hottekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 彫るな horuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 彫れば horeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 彫ったら hottara | — | “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.