使う (tsukau) conjugation
to use
使う (つかう, tsukau) 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 | 使う tsukau | 使います tsukaimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 使わない tsukawanai | 使いません tsukaimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 使った tsukatta | 使いました tsukaimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 使わなかった tsukawanakatta | 使いませんでした tsukaimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 使って tsukatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 使っている tsukatteiru | 使っています tsukatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 使いたい tsukaitai | 使いたいです tsukaitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 使おう tsukaou | 使いましょう tsukaimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 使える tsukaeru | 使えます tsukaemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 使われる tsukawareru | 使われます tsukawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 使わせる tsukawaseru | 使わせます tsukawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 使わされる tsukawasareru | 使わされます tsukawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 使え tsukae | 使ってください tsukattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 使うな tsukauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 使えば tsukaeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 使ったら tsukattara | — | “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.