行う (okonau) conjugation
to carry out; to conduct (typically used in written language)
行う (おこなう, okonau) 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 | 行う okonau | 行います okonaimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 行わない okonawanai | 行いません okonaimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 行った okonatta | 行いました okonaimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 行わなかった okonawanakatta | 行いませんでした okonaimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 行って okonatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 行っている okonatteiru | 行っています okonatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 行いたい okonaitai | 行いたいです okonaitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 行おう okonaou | 行いましょう okonaimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 行える okonaeru | 行えます okonaemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 行われる okonawareru | 行われます okonawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 行わせる okonawaseru | 行わせます okonawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 行わされる okonawasareru | 行わされます okonawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 行え okonae | 行ってください okonattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 行うな okonauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 行えば okonaeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 行ったら okonattara | — | “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.