かねる (kaneru) conjugation
to simultaneously serve two or more functions
かねる (かねる, kaneru) 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.
Written 兼ねる in kanji, but usually written in kana alone.
Conjugation table
| Form | Plain (casual) | Polite (~ます) | When you use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary / plain | かねる kaneru | かねます kanemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | かねない kanenai | かねません kanemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | かねた kaneta | かねました kanemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | かねなかった kanenakatta | かねませんでした kanemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | かねて kanete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | かねている kaneteiru | かねています kaneteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | かねたい kanetai | かねたいです kanetaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | かねよう kaneyou | かねましょう kanemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | かねられる kanerareru | かねられます kaneraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | かねられる kanerareru | かねられます kaneraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | かねさせる kanesaseru | かねさせます kanesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | かねさせられる kanesaserareru | かねさせられます kanesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | かねろ kanero | かねてください kanetekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | かねるな kaneruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | かねれば kanereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | かねたら kanetara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
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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.