手伝う (tetsudau) conjugation
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手伝う (てつだう, tetsudau) 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 | 手伝う tetsudau | 手伝います tetsudaimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 手伝わない tetsudawanai | 手伝いません tetsudaimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 手伝った tetsudatta | 手伝いました tetsudaimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 手伝わなかった tetsudawanakatta | 手伝いませんでした tetsudaimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 手伝って tetsudatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 手伝っている tetsudatteiru | 手伝っています tetsudatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 手伝いたい tetsudaitai | 手伝いたいです tetsudaitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 手伝おう tetsudaou | 手伝いましょう tetsudaimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 手伝える tetsudaeru | 手伝えます tetsudaemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 手伝われる tetsudawareru | 手伝われます tetsudawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 手伝わせる tetsudawaseru | 手伝わせます tetsudawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 手伝わされる tetsudawasareru | 手伝わされます tetsudawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 手伝え tetsudae | 手伝ってください tetsudattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 手伝うな tetsudauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 手伝えば tetsudaeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 手伝ったら tetsudattara | — | “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.