塗る (nuru) conjugation
to paint, to plaster
塗る (ぬる, nuru) 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 | 塗る nuru | 塗ります nurimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 塗らない nuranai | 塗りません nurimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 塗った nutta | 塗りました nurimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 塗らなかった nuranakatta | 塗りませんでした nurimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 塗って nutte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 塗っている nutteiru | 塗っています nutteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 塗りたい nuritai | 塗りたいです nuritaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 塗ろう nurou | 塗りましょう nurimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 塗れる nureru | 塗れます nuremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 塗られる nurareru | 塗られます nuraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 塗らせる nuraseru | 塗らせます nurasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 塗らされる nurasareru | 塗らされます nurasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 塗れ nure | 塗ってください nuttekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 塗るな nuruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 塗れば nureba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 塗ったら nuttara | — | “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.