迷う (mayou) conjugation
to be puzzled, to be perplexed, to lose one's way
迷う (まよう, mayou) 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 | 迷う mayou | 迷います mayoimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 迷わない mayowanai | 迷いません mayoimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 迷った mayotta | 迷いました mayoimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 迷わなかった mayowanakatta | 迷いませんでした mayoimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 迷って mayotte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 迷っている mayotteiru | 迷っています mayotteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 迷いたい mayoitai | 迷いたいです mayoitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 迷おう mayoou | 迷いましょう mayoimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 迷える mayoeru | 迷えます mayoemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 迷われる mayowareru | 迷われます mayowaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 迷わせる mayowaseru | 迷わせます mayowasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 迷わされる mayowasareru | 迷わされます mayowasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 迷え mayoe | 迷ってください mayottekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 迷うな mayouna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 迷えば mayoeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 迷ったら mayottara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
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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.