怯える (obieru) conjugation
to become frightened
怯える (おびえる, obieru) is an ichidan verb. Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes. 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 | 怯える obieru | 怯えます obiemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 怯えない obienai | 怯えません obiemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 怯えた obieta | 怯えました obiemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 怯えなかった obienakatta | 怯えませんでした obiemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 怯えて obiete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 怯えている obieteiru | 怯えています obieteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 怯えたい obietai | 怯えたいです obietaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 怯えよう obieyou | 怯えましょう obiemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 怯えられる obierareru | 怯えられます obieraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 怯えられる obierareru | 怯えられます obieraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 怯えさせる obiesaseru | 怯えさせます obiesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 怯えさせられる obiesaserareru | 怯えさせられます obiesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 怯えろ obiero | 怯えてください obietekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 怯えるな obieruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 怯えれば obiereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 怯えたら obietara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
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Why it conjugates this way
Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes.
See the full rules on the verb conjugation guide.