座る (suwaru) conjugation
to sit
座る (すわる, suwaru) 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 | 座る suwaru | 座ります suwarimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 座らない suwaranai | 座りません suwarimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 座った suwatta | 座りました suwarimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 座らなかった suwaranakatta | 座りませんでした suwarimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 座って suwatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 座っている suwatteiru | 座っています suwatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 座りたい suwaritai | 座りたいです suwaritaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 座ろう suwarou | 座りましょう suwarimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 座れる suwareru | 座れます suwaremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 座られる suwarareru | 座られます suwararemasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 座らせる suwaraseru | 座らせます suwarasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 座らされる suwarasareru | 座らされます suwarasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 座れ suware | 座ってください suwattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 座るな suwaruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 座れば suwareba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 座ったら suwattara | — | “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.