補う (oginau) conjugation
to compensate for
補う (おぎなう, oginau) 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 | 補う oginau | 補います oginaimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 補わない oginawanai | 補いません oginaimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 補った oginatta | 補いました oginaimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 補わなかった oginawanakatta | 補いませんでした oginaimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 補って oginatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 補っている oginatteiru | 補っています oginatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 補いたい oginaitai | 補いたいです oginaitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 補おう oginaou | 補いましょう oginaimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 補える oginaeru | 補えます oginaemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 補われる oginawareru | 補われます oginawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 補わせる oginawaseru | 補わせます oginawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 補わされる oginawasareru | 補わされます oginawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 補え oginae | 補ってください oginattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 補うな oginauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 補えば oginaeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 補ったら oginattara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
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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.