求める (motomeru) conjugation
to request, to ask for; to seek, to search for
求める (もとめる, motomeru) 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 | 求める motomeru | 求めます motomemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 求めない motomenai | 求めません motomemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 求めた motometa | 求めました motomemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 求めなかった motomenakatta | 求めませんでした motomemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 求めて motomete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 求めている motometeiru | 求めています motometeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 求めたい motometai | 求めたいです motometaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 求めよう motomeyou | 求めましょう motomemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 求められる motomerareru | 求められます motomeraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 求められる motomerareru | 求められます motomeraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 求めさせる motomesaseru | 求めさせます motomesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 求めさせられる motomesaserareru | 求めさせられます motomesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 求めろ motomero | 求めてください motometekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 求めるな motomeruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 求めれば motomereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 求めたら motometara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
🔊 Tap any Japanese word to hear it spoken.
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.
