帰る (kaeru) conjugation
to go back, to go home, to return
帰る (かえる, kaeru) 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 | 帰る kaeru | 帰ります kaerimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 帰らない kaeranai | 帰りません kaerimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 帰った kaetta | 帰りました kaerimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 帰らなかった kaeranakatta | 帰りませんでした kaerimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 帰って kaette | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 帰っている kaetteiru | 帰っています kaetteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 帰りたい kaeritai | 帰りたいです kaeritaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 帰ろう kaerou | 帰りましょう kaerimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 帰れる kaereru | 帰れます kaeremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 帰られる kaerareru | 帰られます kaeraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 帰らせる kaeraseru | 帰らせます kaerasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 帰らされる kaerasareru | 帰らされます kaerasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 帰れ kaere | 帰ってください kaettekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 帰るな kaeruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 帰れば kaereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 帰ったら kaettara | — | “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.