真似る (maneru) conjugation
to mimic, to imitate
真似る (まねる, maneru) 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 | 真似る maneru | 真似ます manemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 真似ない manenai | 真似ません manemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 真似た maneta | 真似ました manemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 真似なかった manenakatta | 真似ませんでした manemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 真似て manete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 真似ている maneteiru | 真似ています maneteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 真似たい manetai | 真似たいです manetaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 真似よう maneyou | 真似ましょう manemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 真似られる manerareru | 真似られます maneraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 真似られる manerareru | 真似られます maneraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 真似させる manesaseru | 真似させます manesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 真似させられる manesaserareru | 真似させられます manesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 真似ろ manero | 真似てください manetekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 真似るな maneruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 真似れば manereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 真似たら manetara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
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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.