読む (yomu) conjugation
to read
読む (よむ, yomu) 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 | 読む yomu | 読みます yomimasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 読まない yomanai | 読みません yomimasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 読んだ yonda | 読みました yomimashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 読まなかった yomanakatta | 読みませんでした yomimasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 読んで yonde | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 読んでいる yondeiru | 読んでいます yondeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 読みたい yomitai | 読みたいです yomitaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 読もう yomou | 読みましょう yomimashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 読める yomeru | 読めます yomemasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 読まれる yomareru | 読まれます yomaremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 読ませる yomaseru | 読ませます yomasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 読まされる yomasareru | 読まされます yomasaremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 読め yome | 読んでください yondekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 読むな yomuna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 読めば yomeba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 読んだら yondara | — | “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.