Godan verb (く)

掻くかく

kaku

to scratch · N2

Also read かく: 書く (write), 欠く (lack). All 3 words

掻く (かく, kaku) — to scratch — is a godan verb ending in く: かいて (te-form), かいた (past), かかない (negative), かきます (polite).

It is transitive: it takes a direct object. It is usually written in kana: かく rather than 掻く.

How かく conjugates · godan く-verb

Only the last kana changes: く becomes か, き, け or こ.

Which one depends on the ending. The five are one line of the hiragana chart — same consonant, vowels あ・い・う・え・お — and everything before that kana never changes.

かかかないnegative

きかきますpolite present

くかくdictionary form

けかけるpotentialかけばif

こかこうvolitional

The て and た forms · く → いて, いたいかいてte-formかいたpast

The て and た forms are the only two that don't follow this pattern. Every く- and ぐ-verb changes the same way there; only 行く is different.

N1 N tags give the JLPT level at which the game starts quizzing a form.

Aa Dimmed forms are too rare in everyday Japanese for the game to quiz.

PLAIN

Form	Conjugation	Audio
present	かく掻く kaku
past I scratched it.	かいた掻いた kaita
negative I don't scratch it.	かかない掻かない kakanai
te-form I scratch it and …	かいて掻いて kaite
past negative I didn't scratch it.	かかなかった掻かなかった kakanakatta
volitional Let's scratch it.	かこう掻こう kakou
potential	かける掻ける kakeru
cond. ば If I scratch it, ...	かけば掻けば kakeba
cond. たら When I scratch it, ...	かいたら掻いたら kaitara
passive	かかれる掻かれる kakareru
causative I let someone scratch it.	かかせる掻かせる kakaseru
imperative N1	かけ掻け kake

POLITE

Form	Conjugation	Audio
present	かきます掻きます kakimasu
past I scratched it.	かきました掻きました kakimashita
negative I don't scratch it.	かきません掻きません kakimasen
past negative I didn't scratch it.	かきませんでした掻きませんでした kakimasendeshita
volitional Let's scratch it.	かきましょう掻きましょう kakimashou

ASPECT

Form	Conjugation	Audio
ている I'm scratching it.	かいている掻いている kaiteiru
ていた I was scratching it.	かいていた掻いていた kaiteita
ています I'm scratching it.	かいています掻いています kaiteimasu
ていました I was scratching it.	かいていました掻いていました kaiteimashita