支払う (shiharau) conjugation
to pay
支払う (しはらう, shiharau) 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 | 支払う shiharau | 支払います shiharaimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 支払わない shiharawanai | 支払いません shiharaimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 支払った shiharatta | 支払いました shiharaimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 支払わなかった shiharawanakatta | 支払いませんでした shiharaimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 支払って shiharatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 支払っている shiharatteiru | 支払っています shiharatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 支払いたい shiharaitai | 支払いたいです shiharaitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 支払おう shiharaou | 支払いましょう shiharaimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 支払える shiharaeru | 支払えます shiharaemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 支払われる shiharawareru | 支払われます shiharawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 支払わせる shiharawaseru | 支払わせます shiharawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 支払わされる shiharawasareru | 支払わされます shiharawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 支払え shiharae | 支払ってください shiharattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 支払うな shiharauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 支払えば shiharaeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 支払ったら shiharattara | — | “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.