呼ぶ (yobu) conjugation
to call (one's name); to invite
呼ぶ (よぶ, yobu) 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 | 呼ぶ yobu | 呼びます yobimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 呼ばない yobanai | 呼びません yobimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 呼んだ yonda | 呼びました yobimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 呼ばなかった yobanakatta | 呼びませんでした yobimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 呼んで yonde | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 呼んでいる yondeiru | 呼んでいます yondeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 呼びたい yobitai | 呼びたいです yobitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 呼ぼう yobou | 呼びましょう yobimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 呼べる yoberu | 呼べます yobemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 呼ばれる yobareru | 呼ばれます yobaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 呼ばせる yobaseru | 呼ばせます yobasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 呼ばされる yobasareru | 呼ばされます yobasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 呼べ yobe | 呼んでください yondekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 呼ぶな yobuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 呼べば yobeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 呼んだら yondara | — | “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.