飼う (kau) conjugation
to keep; to own (a pet); to raise; to feed
飼う (かう, kau) 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 | 飼う kau | 飼います kaimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 飼わない kawanai | 飼いません kaimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 飼った katta | 飼いました kaimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 飼わなかった kawanakatta | 飼いませんでした kaimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 飼って katte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 飼っている katteiru | 飼っています katteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 飼いたい kaitai | 飼いたいです kaitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 飼おう kaou | 飼いましょう kaimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 飼える kaeru | 飼えます kaemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 飼われる kawareru | 飼われます kawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 飼わせる kawaseru | 飼わせます kawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 飼わされる kawasareru | 飼わされます kawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 飼え kae | 飼ってください kattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 飼うな kauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 飼えば kaeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 飼ったら kattara | — | “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.