憎む (nikumu) conjugation
to hate, to detest
憎む (にくむ, nikumu) 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 | 憎む nikumu | 憎みます nikumimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 憎まない nikumanai | 憎みません nikumimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 憎んだ nikunda | 憎みました nikumimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 憎まなかった nikumanakatta | 憎みませんでした nikumimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 憎んで nikunde | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 憎んでいる nikundeiru | 憎んでいます nikundeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 憎みたい nikumitai | 憎みたいです nikumitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 憎もう nikumou | 憎みましょう nikumimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 憎める nikumeru | 憎めます nikumemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 憎まれる nikumareru | 憎まれます nikumaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 憎ませる nikumaseru | 憎ませます nikumasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 憎まされる nikumasareru | 憎まされます nikumasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 憎め nikume | 憎んでください nikundekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 憎むな nikumuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 憎めば nikumeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 憎んだら nikundara | — | “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.