刈る (karu) conjugation
to cut (hair), to mow (grass), to harvest
刈る (かる, karu) 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 | 刈る karu | 刈ります karimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 刈らない karanai | 刈りません karimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 刈った katta | 刈りました karimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 刈らなかった karanakatta | 刈りませんでした karimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 刈って katte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 刈っている katteiru | 刈っています katteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 刈りたい karitai | 刈りたいです karitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 刈ろう karou | 刈りましょう karimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 刈れる kareru | 刈れます karemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 刈られる karareru | 刈られます kararemasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 刈らせる karaseru | 刈らせます karasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 刈らされる karasareru | 刈らされます karasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 刈れ kare | 刈ってください kattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 刈るな karuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 刈れば kareba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 刈ったら kattara | — | “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.