笑う (warau) conjugation
to laugh, to smile
笑う (わらう, warau) 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 | 笑う warau | 笑います waraimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 笑わない warawanai | 笑いません waraimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 笑った waratta | 笑いました waraimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 笑わなかった warawanakatta | 笑いませんでした waraimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 笑って waratte | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 笑っている waratteiru | 笑っています waratteimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 笑いたい waraitai | 笑いたいです waraitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 笑おう waraou | 笑いましょう waraimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 笑える waraeru | 笑えます waraemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 笑われる warawareru | 笑われます warawaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 笑わせる warawaseru | 笑わせます warawasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 笑わされる warawasareru | 笑わされます warawasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 笑え warae | 笑ってください warattekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 笑うな warauna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 笑えば waraeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 笑ったら warattara | — | “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.