亡くなる (nakunaru) conjugation
to pass away
亡くなる (なくなる, nakunaru) 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 | 亡くなる nakunaru | 亡くなります nakunarimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 亡くならない nakunaranai | 亡くなりません nakunarimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 亡くなった nakunatta | 亡くなりました nakunarimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 亡くならなかった nakunaranakatta | 亡くなりませんでした nakunarimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 亡くなって nakunatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 亡くなっている nakunatteiru | 亡くなっています nakunatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 亡くなりたい nakunaritai | 亡くなりたいです nakunaritaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 亡くなろう nakunarou | 亡くなりましょう nakunarimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 亡くなれる nakunareru | 亡くなれます nakunaremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 亡くなられる nakunarareru | 亡くなられます nakunararemasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 亡くならせる nakunaraseru | 亡くならせます nakunarasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 亡くならされる nakunarasareru | 亡くならされます nakunarasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 亡くなれ nakunare | 亡くなってください nakunattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 亡くなるな nakunaruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 亡くなれば nakunareba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 亡くなったら nakunattara | — | “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.