見習う (minarau) conjugation
to follow another's example
見習う (みならう, minarau) 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 | 見習う minarau | 見習います minaraimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 見習わない minarawanai | 見習いません minaraimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 見習った minaratta | 見習いました minaraimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 見習わなかった minarawanakatta | 見習いませんでした minaraimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 見習って minaratte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 見習っている minaratteiru | 見習っています minaratteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 見習いたい minaraitai | 見習いたいです minaraitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 見習おう minaraou | 見習いましょう minaraimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 見習える minaraeru | 見習えます minaraemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 見習われる minarawareru | 見習われます minarawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 見習わせる minarawaseru | 見習わせます minarawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 見習わされる minarawasareru | 見習わされます minarawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 見習え minarae | 見習ってください minarattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 見習うな minarauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 見習えば minaraeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 見習ったら minarattara | — | “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.