刻む (kizamu) conjugation
to mince, to carve, to engrave
刻む (きざむ, kizamu) 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 | 刻む kizamu | 刻みます kizamimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 刻まない kizamanai | 刻みません kizamimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 刻んだ kizanda | 刻みました kizamimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 刻まなかった kizamanakatta | 刻みませんでした kizamimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 刻んで kizande | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 刻んでいる kizandeiru | 刻んでいます kizandeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 刻みたい kizamitai | 刻みたいです kizamitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 刻もう kizamou | 刻みましょう kizamimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 刻める kizameru | 刻めます kizamemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 刻まれる kizamareru | 刻まれます kizamaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 刻ませる kizamaseru | 刻ませます kizamasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 刻まされる kizamasareru | 刻まされます kizamasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 刻め kizame | 刻んでください kizandekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 刻むな kizamuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 刻めば kizameba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 刻んだら kizandara | — | “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.