止める (tomeru) conjugation
to stop (something)
止める (とめる, tomeru) 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 | 止める tomeru | 止めます tomemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 止めない tomenai | 止めません tomemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 止めた tometa | 止めました tomemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 止めなかった tomenakatta | 止めませんでした tomemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 止めて tomete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 止めている tometeiru | 止めています tometeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 止めたい tometai | 止めたいです tometaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 止めよう tomeyou | 止めましょう tomemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 止められる tomerareru | 止められます tomeraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 止められる tomerareru | 止められます tomeraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 止めさせる tomesaseru | 止めさせます tomesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 止めさせられる tomesaserareru | 止めさせられます tomesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 止めろ tomero | 止めてください tometekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 止めるな tomeruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 止めれば tomereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 止めたら tometara | — | “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.