止まる (tomaru) conjugation
to come to a halt
止まる (とまる, tomaru) 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 | 止まる tomaru | 止まります tomarimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 止まらない tomaranai | 止まりません tomarimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 止まった tomatta | 止まりました tomarimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 止まらなかった tomaranakatta | 止まりませんでした tomarimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 止まって tomatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 止まっている tomatteiru | 止まっています tomatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 止まりたい tomaritai | 止まりたいです tomaritaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 止まろう tomarou | 止まりましょう tomarimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 止まれる tomareru | 止まれます tomaremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 止まられる tomarareru | 止まられます tomararemasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 止まらせる tomaraseru | 止まらせます tomarasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 止まらされる tomarasareru | 止まらされます tomarasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 止まれ tomare | 止まってください tomattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 止まるな tomaruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 止まれば tomareba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 止まったら tomattara | — | “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.