通う (kayou) conjugation
to go back and forth; to commute
通う (かよう, kayou) 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 | 通う kayou | 通います kayoimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 通わない kayowanai | 通いません kayoimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 通った kayotta | 通いました kayoimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 通わなかった kayowanakatta | 通いませんでした kayoimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 通って kayotte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 通っている kayotteiru | 通っています kayotteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 通いたい kayoitai | 通いたいです kayoitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 通おう kayoou | 通いましょう kayoimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 通える kayoeru | 通えます kayoemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 通われる kayowareru | 通われます kayowaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 通わせる kayowaseru | 通わせます kayowasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 通わされる kayowasareru | 通わされます kayowasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 通え kayoe | 通ってください kayottekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 通うな kayouna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 通えば kayoeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 通ったら kayottara | — | “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.