例える (tatoeru) conjugation
to compare, to liken
例える (たとえる, tatoeru) 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 | 例える tatoeru | 例えます tatoemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 例えない tatoenai | 例えません tatoemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 例えた tatoeta | 例えました tatoemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 例えなかった tatoenakatta | 例えませんでした tatoemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 例えて tatoete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 例えている tatoeteiru | 例えています tatoeteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 例えたい tatoetai | 例えたいです tatoetaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 例えよう tatoeyou | 例えましょう tatoemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 例えられる tatoerareru | 例えられます tatoeraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 例えられる tatoerareru | 例えられます tatoeraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 例えさせる tatoesaseru | 例えさせます tatoesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 例えさせられる tatoesaserareru | 例えさせられます tatoesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 例えろ tatoero | 例えてください tatoetekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 例えるな tatoeruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 例えれば tatoereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 例えたら tatoetara | — | “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.