願う (negau) conjugation
to desire, to wish, to request
願う (ねがう, negau) 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 | 願う negau | 願います negaimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 願わない negawanai | 願いません negaimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 願った negatta | 願いました negaimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 願わなかった negawanakatta | 願いませんでした negaimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 願って negatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 願っている negatteiru | 願っています negatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 願いたい negaitai | 願いたいです negaitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 願おう negaou | 願いましょう negaimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 願える negaeru | 願えます negaemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 願われる negawareru | 願われます negawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 願わせる negawaseru | 願わせます negawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 願わされる negawasareru | 願わされます negawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 願え negae | 願ってください negattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 願うな negauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 願えば negaeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 願ったら negattara | — | “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.