似合う (niau) conjugation
to suit (a person), to match (clothing), (something) becomes (someone)
似合う (にあう, niau) 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 | 似合う niau | 似合います niaimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 似合わない niawanai | 似合いません niaimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 似合った niatta | 似合いました niaimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 似合わなかった niawanakatta | 似合いませんでした niaimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 似合って niatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 似合っている niatteiru | 似合っています niatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 似合いたい niaitai | 似合いたいです niaitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 似合おう niaou | 似合いましょう niaimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 似合える niaeru | 似合えます niaemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 似合われる niawareru | 似合われます niawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 似合わせる niawaseru | 似合わせます niawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 似合わされる niawasareru | 似合わされます niawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 似合え niae | 似合ってください niattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 似合うな niauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 似合えば niaeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 似合ったら niattara | — | “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.