まかなう (makanau) conjugation
to give board to, to provide meals, to pay
まかなう (まかなう, makanau) 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.
Written 賄う in kanji, but usually written in kana alone.
Conjugation table
| Form | Plain (casual) | Polite (~ます) | When you use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary / plain | まかなう makanau | まかないます makanaimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | まかなわない makanawanai | まかないません makanaimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | まかなった makanatta | まかないました makanaimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | まかなわなかった makanawanakatta | まかないませんでした makanaimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | まかなって makanatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | まかなっている makanatteiru | まかなっています makanatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | まかないたい makanaitai | まかないたいです makanaitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | まかなおう makanaou | まかないましょう makanaimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | まかなえる makanaeru | まかなえます makanaemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | まかなわれる makanawareru | まかなわれます makanawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | まかなわせる makanawaseru | まかなわせます makanawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | まかなわされる makanawasareru | まかなわされます makanawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | まかなえ makanae | まかなってください makanattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | まかなうな makanauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | まかなえば makanaeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | まかなったら makanattara | — | “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.