つける (tsukeru) conjugation
to attach, to join, to add
つける (つける, tsukeru) 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.
Written 付ける in kanji, but usually written in kana alone.
Conjugation table
| Form | Plain (casual) | Polite (~ます) | When you use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary / plain | つける tsukeru | つけます tsukemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | つけない tsukenai | つけません tsukemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | つけた tsuketa | つけました tsukemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | つけなかった tsukenakatta | つけませんでした tsukemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | つけて tsukete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | つけている tsuketeiru | つけています tsuketeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | つけたい tsuketai | つけたいです tsuketaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | つけよう tsukeyou | つけましょう tsukemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | つけられる tsukerareru | つけられます tsukeraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | つけられる tsukerareru | つけられます tsukeraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | つけさせる tsukesaseru | つけさせます tsukesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | つけさせられる tsukesaserareru | つけさせられます tsukesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | つけろ tsukero | つけてください tsuketekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | つけるな tsukeruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | つければ tsukereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | つけたら tsuketara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
🔊 Tap any Japanese word to hear it spoken.
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.