務める (tsutomeru) conjugation
to serve, to act
務める (つとめる, tsutomeru) 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 | 務める tsutomeru | 務めます tsutomemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 務めない tsutomenai | 務めません tsutomemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 務めた tsutometa | 務めました tsutomemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 務めなかった tsutomenakatta | 務めませんでした tsutomemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 務めて tsutomete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 務めている tsutometeiru | 務めています tsutometeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 務めたい tsutometai | 務めたいです tsutometaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 務めよう tsutomeyou | 務めましょう tsutomemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 務められる tsutomerareru | 務められます tsutomeraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 務められる tsutomerareru | 務められます tsutomeraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 務めさせる tsutomesaseru | 務めさせます tsutomesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 務めさせられる tsutomesaserareru | 務めさせられます tsutomesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 務めろ tsutomero | 務めてください tsutometekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 務めるな tsutomeruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 務めれば tsutomereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 務めたら tsutometara | — | “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.