負う (ou) conjugation
to bear, to owe
負う (おう, ou) 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 | 負う ou | 負います oimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 負わない owanai | 負いません oimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 負った otta | 負いました oimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 負わなかった owanakatta | 負いませんでした oimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 負って otte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 負っている otteiru | 負っています otteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 負いたい oitai | 負いたいです oitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 負おう oou | 負いましょう oimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 負える oeru | 負えます oemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 負われる owareru | 負われます owaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 負わせる owaseru | 負わせます owasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 負わされる owasareru | 負わされます owasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 負え oe | 負ってください ottekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 負うな ouna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 負えば oeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 負ったら ottara | — | “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.