変える (kaeru) conjugation
to change, to alter, to vary
変える (かえる, kaeru) 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 | 変える kaeru | 変えます kaemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 変えない kaenai | 変えません kaemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 変えた kaeta | 変えました kaemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 変えなかった kaenakatta | 変えませんでした kaemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 変えて kaete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 変えている kaeteiru | 変えています kaeteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 変えたい kaetai | 変えたいです kaetaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 変えよう kaeyou | 変えましょう kaemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 変えられる kaerareru | 変えられます kaeraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 変えられる kaerareru | 変えられます kaeraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 変えさせる kaesaseru | 変えさせます kaesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 変えさせられる kaesaserareru | 変えさせられます kaesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 変えろ kaero | 変えてください kaetekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 変えるな kaeruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 変えれば kaereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 変えたら kaetara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
🔊 Tap any Japanese word to hear it spoken.
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.