戻る (modoru) conjugation
to return (v.i.); to come back
戻る (もどる, modoru) 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 | 戻る modoru | 戻ります modorimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 戻らない modoranai | 戻りません modorimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 戻った modotta | 戻りました modorimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 戻らなかった modoranakatta | 戻りませんでした modorimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 戻って modotte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 戻っている modotteiru | 戻っています modotteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 戻りたい modoritai | 戻りたいです modoritaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 戻ろう modorou | 戻りましょう modorimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 戻れる modoreru | 戻れます modoremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 戻られる modorareru | 戻られます modoraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 戻らせる modoraseru | 戻らせます modorasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 戻らされる modorasareru | 戻らされます modorasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 戻れ modore | 戻ってください modottekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 戻るな modoruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 戻れば modoreba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 戻ったら modottara | — | “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.