裁く (sabaku) conjugation
to judge
裁く (さばく, sabaku) 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 | 裁く sabaku | 裁きます sabakimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 裁かない sabakanai | 裁きません sabakimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 裁いた sabaita | 裁きました sabakimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 裁かなかった sabakanakatta | 裁きませんでした sabakimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 裁いて sabaite | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 裁いている sabaiteiru | 裁いています sabaiteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 裁きたい sabakitai | 裁きたいです sabakitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 裁こう sabakou | 裁きましょう sabakimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 裁ける sabakeru | 裁けます sabakemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 裁かれる sabakareru | 裁かれます sabakaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 裁かせる sabakaseru | 裁かせます sabakasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 裁かされる sabakasareru | 裁かされます sabakasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 裁け sabake | 裁いてください sabaitekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 裁くな sabakuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 裁けば sabakeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 裁いたら sabaitara | — | “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.