覆う (oou) conjugation
to cover, to hide, to conceal
覆う (おおう, oou) 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 | 覆う oou | 覆います ooimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 覆わない oowanai | 覆いません ooimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 覆った ootta | 覆いました ooimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 覆わなかった oowanakatta | 覆いませんでした ooimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 覆って ootte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 覆っている ootteiru | 覆っています ootteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 覆いたい ooitai | 覆いたいです ooitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 覆おう ooou | 覆いましょう ooimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 覆える ooeru | 覆えます ooemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 覆われる oowareru | 覆われます oowaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 覆わせる oowaseru | 覆わせます oowasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 覆わされる oowasareru | 覆わされます oowasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 覆え ooe | 覆ってください oottekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 覆うな oouna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 覆えば ooeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 覆ったら oottara | — | “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.