噛む (kamu) conjugation
to bite, to chew
噛む (かむ, kamu) 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 | 噛む kamu | 噛みます kamimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 噛まない kamanai | 噛みません kamimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 噛んだ kanda | 噛みました kamimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 噛まなかった kamanakatta | 噛みませんでした kamimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 噛んで kande | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 噛んでいる kandeiru | 噛んでいます kandeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 噛みたい kamitai | 噛みたいです kamitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 噛もう kamou | 噛みましょう kamimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 噛める kameru | 噛めます kamemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 噛まれる kamareru | 噛まれます kamaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 噛ませる kamaseru | 噛ませます kamasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 噛まされる kamasareru | 噛まされます kamasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 噛め kame | 噛んでください kandekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 噛むな kamuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 噛めば kameba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 噛んだら kandara | — | “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.