助ける (tasukeru) conjugation
to help (v.t.), to save, to rescue
助ける (たすける, tasukeru) is an ichidan verb. Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes. 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 | 助ける tasukeru | 助けます tasukemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 助けない tasukenai | 助けません tasukemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 助けた tasuketa | 助けました tasukemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 助けなかった tasukenakatta | 助けませんでした tasukemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 助けて tasukete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 助けている tasuketeiru | 助けています tasuketeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 助けたい tasuketai | 助けたいです tasuketaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 助けよう tasukeyou | 助けましょう tasukemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 助けられる tasukerareru | 助けられます tasukeraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 助けられる tasukerareru | 助けられます tasukeraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 助けさせる tasukesaseru | 助けさせます tasukesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 助けさせられる tasukesaserareru | 助けさせられます tasukesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 助けろ tasukero | 助けてください tasuketekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 助けるな tasukeruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 助ければ tasukereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 助けたら tasuketara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
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Why it conjugates this way
Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes.
See the full rules on the verb conjugation guide.