叶う (kanau) conjugation
to come true
叶う (かなう, kanau) 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 | 叶う kanau | 叶います kanaimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 叶わない kanawanai | 叶いません kanaimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 叶った kanatta | 叶いました kanaimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 叶わなかった kanawanakatta | 叶いませんでした kanaimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 叶って kanatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 叶っている kanatteiru | 叶っています kanatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 叶いたい kanaitai | 叶いたいです kanaitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 叶おう kanaou | 叶いましょう kanaimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 叶える kanaeru | 叶えます kanaemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 叶われる kanawareru | 叶われます kanawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 叶わせる kanawaseru | 叶わせます kanawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 叶わされる kanawasareru | 叶わされます kanawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 叶え kanae | 叶ってください kanattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 叶うな kanauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 叶えば kanaeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 叶ったら kanattara | — | “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.