巻く (maku) conjugation
to wind, to coil, to roll
巻く (まく, maku) 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 | 巻く maku | 巻きます makimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 巻かない makanai | 巻きません makimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 巻いた maita | 巻きました makimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 巻かなかった makanakatta | 巻きませんでした makimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 巻いて maite | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 巻いている maiteiru | 巻いています maiteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 巻きたい makitai | 巻きたいです makitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 巻こう makou | 巻きましょう makimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 巻ける makeru | 巻けます makemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 巻かれる makareru | 巻かれます makaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 巻かせる makaseru | 巻かせます makasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 巻かされる makasareru | 巻かされます makasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 巻け make | 巻いてください maitekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 巻くな makuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 巻けば makeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 巻いたら maitara | — | “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.