嘆く (nageku) conjugation
to sigh, to lament, to grieve
嘆く (なげく, nageku) 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 | 嘆く nageku | 嘆きます nagekimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 嘆かない nagekanai | 嘆きません nagekimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 嘆いた nageita | 嘆きました nagekimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 嘆かなかった nagekanakatta | 嘆きませんでした nagekimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 嘆いて nageite | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 嘆いている nageiteiru | 嘆いています nageiteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 嘆きたい nagekitai | 嘆きたいです nagekitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 嘆こう nagekou | 嘆きましょう nagekimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 嘆ける nagekeru | 嘆けます nagekemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 嘆かれる nagekareru | 嘆かれます nagekaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 嘆かせる nagekaseru | 嘆かせます nagekasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 嘆かされる nagekasareru | 嘆かされます nagekasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 嘆け nageke | 嘆いてください nageitekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 嘆くな nagekuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 嘆けば nagekeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 嘆いたら nageitara | — | “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.