欠く (kaku) conjugation
to lack, to crack
欠く (かく, kaku) 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 | 欠く kaku | 欠きます kakimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 欠かない kakanai | 欠きません kakimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 欠いた kaita | 欠きました kakimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 欠かなかった kakanakatta | 欠きませんでした kakimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 欠いて kaite | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 欠いている kaiteiru | 欠いています kaiteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 欠きたい kakitai | 欠きたいです kakitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 欠こう kakou | 欠きましょう kakimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 欠ける kakeru | 欠けます kakemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 欠かれる kakareru | 欠かれます kakaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 欠かせる kakaseru | 欠かせます kakasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 欠かされる kakasareru | 欠かされます kakasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 欠け kake | 欠いてください kaitekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 欠くな kakuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 欠けば kakeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 欠いたら kaitara | — | “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.