泣く (naku) conjugation
to cry
泣く (なく, naku) 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 | 泣く naku | 泣きます nakimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 泣かない nakanai | 泣きません nakimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 泣いた naita | 泣きました nakimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 泣かなかった nakanakatta | 泣きませんでした nakimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 泣いて naite | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 泣いている naiteiru | 泣いています naiteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 泣きたい nakitai | 泣きたいです nakitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 泣こう nakou | 泣きましょう nakimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 泣ける nakeru | 泣けます nakemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 泣かれる nakareru | 泣かれます nakaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 泣かせる nakaseru | 泣かせます nakasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 泣かされる nakasareru | 泣かされます nakasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 泣け nake | 泣いてください naitekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 泣くな nakuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 泣けば nakeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 泣いたら naitara | — | “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.