背負う (seou) conjugation
to be burdened with; to carry on (one's) back or shoulder(s)
背負う (せおう, seou) 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 | 背負う seou | 背負います seoimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 背負わない seowanai | 背負いません seoimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 背負った seotta | 背負いました seoimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 背負わなかった seowanakatta | 背負いませんでした seoimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 背負って seotte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 背負っている seotteiru | 背負っています seotteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 背負いたい seoitai | 背負いたいです seoitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 背負おう seoou | 背負いましょう seoimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 背負える seoeru | 背負えます seoemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 背負われる seowareru | 背負われます seowaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 背負わせる seowaseru | 背負わせます seowasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 背負わされる seowasareru | 背負わされます seowasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 背負え seoe | 背負ってください seottekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 背負うな seouna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 背負えば seoeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 背負ったら seottara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
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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.