添う (sou) conjugation
to accompany, to comply with
添う (そう, sou) 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 | 添う sou | 添います soimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 添わない sowanai | 添いません soimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 添った sotta | 添いました soimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 添わなかった sowanakatta | 添いませんでした soimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 添って sotte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 添っている sotteiru | 添っています sotteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 添いたい soitai | 添いたいです soitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 添おう soou | 添いましょう soimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 添える soeru | 添えます soemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 添われる sowareru | 添われます sowaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 添わせる sowaseru | 添わせます sowasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 添わされる sowasareru | 添わされます sowasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 添え soe | 添ってください sottekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 添うな souna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 添えば soeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 添ったら sottara | — | “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.