失う (ushinau) conjugation
to lose, to part with
失う (うしなう, ushinau) 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 | 失う ushinau | 失います ushinaimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 失わない ushinawanai | 失いません ushinaimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 失った ushinatta | 失いました ushinaimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 失わなかった ushinawanakatta | 失いませんでした ushinaimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 失って ushinatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 失っている ushinatteiru | 失っています ushinatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 失いたい ushinaitai | 失いたいです ushinaitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 失おう ushinaou | 失いましょう ushinaimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 失える ushinaeru | 失えます ushinaemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 失われる ushinawareru | 失われます ushinawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 失わせる ushinawaseru | 失わせます ushinawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 失わされる ushinawasareru | 失わされます ushinawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 失え ushinae | 失ってください ushinattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 失うな ushinauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 失えば ushinaeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 失ったら ushinattara | — | “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.