吸う (suu) conjugation
to breathe in, to suck
吸う (すう, suu) 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 | 吸う suu | 吸います suimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 吸わない suwanai | 吸いません suimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 吸った sutta | 吸いました suimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 吸わなかった suwanakatta | 吸いませんでした suimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 吸って sutte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 吸っている sutteiru | 吸っています sutteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 吸いたい suitai | 吸いたいです suitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 吸おう suou | 吸いましょう suimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 吸える sueru | 吸えます suemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 吸われる suwareru | 吸われます suwaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 吸わせる suwaseru | 吸わせます suwasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 吸わされる suwasareru | 吸わされます suwasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 吸え sue | 吸ってください suttekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 吸うな suuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 吸えば sueba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 吸ったら suttara | — | “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.