代る (kawaru) conjugation
to take the place of, to relieve, to be substituted for
代る (かわる, kawaru) 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 | 代る kawaru | 代ります kawarimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 代らない kawaranai | 代りません kawarimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 代った kawatta | 代りました kawarimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 代らなかった kawaranakatta | 代りませんでした kawarimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 代って kawatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 代っている kawatteiru | 代っています kawatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 代りたい kawaritai | 代りたいです kawaritaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 代ろう kawarou | 代りましょう kawarimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 代れる kawareru | 代れます kawaremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 代られる kawarareru | 代られます kawararemasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 代らせる kawaraseru | 代らせます kawarasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 代らされる kawarasareru | 代らされます kawarasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 代れ kaware | 代ってください kawattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 代るな kawaruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 代れば kawareba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 代ったら kawattara | — | “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.