借りる (kariru) conjugation
to borrow, to owe
借りる (かりる, kariru) 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.
Conjugation table
| Form | Plain (casual) | Polite (~ます) | When you use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary / plain | 借りる kariru | 借ります karimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 借りない karinai | 借りません karimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 借りた karita | 借りました karimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 借りなかった karinakatta | 借りませんでした karimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 借りて karite | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 借りている kariteiru | 借りています kariteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 借りたい karitai | 借りたいです karitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 借りよう kariyou | 借りましょう karimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 借りられる karirareru | 借りられます kariraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 借りられる karirareru | 借りられます kariraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 借りさせる karisaseru | 借りさせます karisasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 借りさせられる karisaserareru | 借りさせられます karisaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 借りろ kariro | 借りてください karitekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 借りるな kariruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 借りれば karireba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 借りたら karitara | — | “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.