苦しむ (kurushimu) conjugation
to suffer, to groan, to be worried
苦しむ (くるしむ, kurushimu) 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 | 苦しむ kurushimu | 苦しみます kurushimimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 苦しまない kurushimanai | 苦しみません kurushimimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 苦しんだ kurushinda | 苦しみました kurushimimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 苦しまなかった kurushimanakatta | 苦しみませんでした kurushimimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 苦しんで kurushinde | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 苦しんでいる kurushindeiru | 苦しんでいます kurushindeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 苦しみたい kurushimitai | 苦しみたいです kurushimitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 苦しもう kurushimou | 苦しみましょう kurushimimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 苦しめる kurushimeru | 苦しめます kurushimemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 苦しまれる kurushimareru | 苦しまれます kurushimaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 苦しませる kurushimaseru | 苦しませます kurushimasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 苦しまされる kurushimasareru | 苦しまされます kurushimasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 苦しめ kurushime | 苦しんでください kurushindekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 苦しむな kurushimuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 苦しめば kurushimeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 苦しんだら kurushindara | — | “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.