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