歌う (utau) conjugation
to sing
歌う (うたう, utau) 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 | 歌う utau | 歌います utaimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 歌わない utawanai | 歌いません utaimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 歌った utatta | 歌いました utaimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 歌わなかった utawanakatta | 歌いませんでした utaimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 歌って utatte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 歌っている utatteiru | 歌っています utatteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 歌いたい utaitai | 歌いたいです utaitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 歌おう utaou | 歌いましょう utaimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 歌える utaeru | 歌えます utaemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 歌われる utawareru | 歌われます utawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 歌わせる utawaseru | 歌わせます utawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 歌わされる utawasareru | 歌わされます utawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 歌え utae | 歌ってください utattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 歌うな utauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 歌えば utaeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 歌ったら utattara | — | “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.