磨く (migaku) conjugation
to brush (teeth); to polish
磨く (みがく, migaku) 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 | 磨く migaku | 磨きます migakimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 磨かない migakanai | 磨きません migakimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 磨いた migaita | 磨きました migakimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 磨かなかった migakanakatta | 磨きませんでした migakimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 磨いて migaite | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 磨いている migaiteiru | 磨いています migaiteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 磨きたい migakitai | 磨きたいです migakitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 磨こう migakou | 磨きましょう migakimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 磨ける migakeru | 磨けます migakemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 磨かれる migakareru | 磨かれます migakaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 磨かせる migakaseru | 磨かせます migakasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 磨かされる migakasareru | 磨かされます migakasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 磨け migake | 磨いてください migaitekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 磨くな migakuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 磨けば migakeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 磨いたら migaitara | — | “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.