頼る (tayoru) conjugation
to rely on, to have recourse to, to depend on
頼る (たよる, tayoru) 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 | 頼る tayoru | 頼ります tayorimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 頼らない tayoranai | 頼りません tayorimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 頼った tayotta | 頼りました tayorimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 頼らなかった tayoranakatta | 頼りませんでした tayorimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 頼って tayotte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 頼っている tayotteiru | 頼っています tayotteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 頼りたい tayoritai | 頼りたいです tayoritaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 頼ろう tayorou | 頼りましょう tayorimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 頼れる tayoreru | 頼れます tayoremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 頼られる tayorareru | 頼られます tayoraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 頼らせる tayoraseru | 頼らせます tayorasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 頼らされる tayorasareru | 頼らされます tayorasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 頼れ tayore | 頼ってください tayottekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 頼るな tayoruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 頼れば tayoreba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 頼ったら tayottara | — | “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.