間違える (machigaeru) conjugation
to make a mistake
間違える (まちがえる, machigaeru) is an ichidan verb. Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes. 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 | 間違える machigaeru | 間違えます machigaemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 間違えない machigaenai | 間違えません machigaemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 間違えた machigaeta | 間違えました machigaemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 間違えなかった machigaenakatta | 間違えませんでした machigaemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 間違えて machigaete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 間違えている machigaeteiru | 間違えています machigaeteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 間違えたい machigaetai | 間違えたいです machigaetaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 間違えよう machigaeyou | 間違えましょう machigaemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 間違えられる machigaerareru | 間違えられます machigaeraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 間違えられる machigaerareru | 間違えられます machigaeraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 間違えさせる machigaesaseru | 間違えさせます machigaesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 間違えさせられる machigaesaserareru | 間違えさせられます machigaesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 間違えろ machigaero | 間違えてください machigaetekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 間違えるな machigaeruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 間違えれば machigaereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 間違えたら machigaetara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
🔊 Tap any Japanese word to hear it spoken.
Why it conjugates this way
Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes.
See the full rules on the verb conjugation guide.