定める (sadameru) conjugation
to decide, to determine
定める (さだめる, sadameru) is an ichidan verb. Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes. 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 | 定める sadameru | 定めます sadamemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 定めない sadamenai | 定めません sadamemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 定めた sadameta | 定めました sadamemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 定めなかった sadamenakatta | 定めませんでした sadamemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 定めて sadamete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 定めている sadameteiru | 定めています sadameteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 定めたい sadametai | 定めたいです sadametaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 定めよう sadameyou | 定めましょう sadamemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 定められる sadamerareru | 定められます sadameraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 定められる sadamerareru | 定められます sadameraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 定めさせる sadamesaseru | 定めさせます sadamesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 定めさせられる sadamesaserareru | 定めさせられます sadamesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 定めろ sadamero | 定めてください sadametekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 定めるな sadameruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 定めれば sadamereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 定めたら sadametara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
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Why it conjugates this way
Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes.
See the full rules on the verb conjugation guide.