頼む (tanomu) conjugation
to request, to ask (a favor)
頼む (たのむ, tanomu) 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 | 頼む tanomu | 頼みます tanomimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 頼まない tanomanai | 頼みません tanomimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 頼んだ tanonda | 頼みました tanomimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 頼まなかった tanomanakatta | 頼みませんでした tanomimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 頼んで tanonde | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 頼んでいる tanondeiru | 頼んでいます tanondeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 頼みたい tanomitai | 頼みたいです tanomitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 頼もう tanomou | 頼みましょう tanomimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 頼める tanomeru | 頼めます tanomemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 頼まれる tanomareru | 頼まれます tanomaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 頼ませる tanomaseru | 頼ませます tanomasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 頼まされる tanomasareru | 頼まされます tanomasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 頼め tanome | 頼んでください tanondekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 頼むな tanomuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 頼めば tanomeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 頼んだら tanondara | — | “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.