継ぐ (tsugu) conjugation
to succeed (someone in a business or inheritance
継ぐ (つぐ, tsugu) 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 | 継ぐ tsugu | 継ぎます tsugimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 継がない tsuganai | 継ぎません tsugimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 継いだ tsuida | 継ぎました tsugimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 継がなかった tsuganakatta | 継ぎませんでした tsugimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 継いで tsuide | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 継いでいる tsuideiru | 継いでいます tsuideimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 継ぎたい tsugitai | 継ぎたいです tsugitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 継ごう tsugou | 継ぎましょう tsugimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 継げる tsugeru | 継げます tsugemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 継がれる tsugareru | 継がれます tsugaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 継がせる tsugaseru | 継がせます tsugasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 継がされる tsugasareru | 継がされます tsugasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 継げ tsuge | 継いでください tsuidekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 継ぐな tsuguna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 継げば tsugeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 継いだら tsuidara | — | “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.