訊ねる

Japanese

Kanji in this term
訊
たず Jinmeiyō
kun'yomi

Etymology

From Old Japanese 訪ぬ (tadunu), in the 下二段活用 (shimo nidan katsuyō, “lower bigrade conjugation”) pattern.

Development

Natural progression from Old and Classical Japanese 下二段活用 (shimo nidan katsuyō, “lower bigrade conjugation”) verbs ending in -u to modern Japanese 下一段活用 (shimo ichidan katsuyō, “lower monograde conjugation”) verbs ending in -eru.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) たずねる [tàzúnéꜜrù] (Nakadaka – [3])
• IPA^(key): [ta̠zɨne̞ɾɯ̟]

• Homophone: 訪ねる

Verb

訊(たず)ねる • (tazuneru) ^{←たづねる (taduneru)?}ichidan (stem 訊(たず)ね (tazune), past 訊(たず)ねた (tazuneta))

1. to ask

Conjugation

Conjugation of "訊ねる" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs.)

Katsuyōkei ("stem forms")
Mizenkei ("imperfective")	訊ね	たずね	tazune
Ren’yōkei ("continuative")	訊ね	たずね	tazune
Shūshikei ("terminal")	訊ねる	たずねる	tazuneru
Rentaikei ("attributive")	訊ねる	たずねる	tazuneru
Kateikei ("hypothetical")	訊ねれ	たずねれ	tazunere
Meireikei ("imperative")	訊ねよ¹ 訊ねろ²	たずねよ¹ たずねろ²	tazuneyo¹ tazunero²
Key constructions
Passive	訊ねられる	たずねられる	tazunerareru
Causative	訊ねさせる 訊ねさす	たずねさせる たずねさす	tazunesaseru tazunesasu
Potential	訊ねられる 訊ねれる³	たずねられる たずねれる³	tazunerareru tazunereru³
Volitional	訊ねよう	たずねよう	tazuneyō
Negative	訊ねない 訊ねぬ 訊ねん	たずねない たずねぬ たずねん	tazunenai tazunenu tazunen
Negative continuative	訊ねず	たずねず	tazunezu
Formal	訊ねます	たずねます	tazunemasu
Perfective	訊ねた	たずねた	tazuneta
Conjunctive	訊ねて	たずねて	tazunete
Hypothetical conditional	訊ねれば	たずねれば	tazunereba
¹ Written imperative ² Spoken imperative ³ Colloquial potential

Synonyms

• 尋(たず)ねる (tazuneru): to ask; to inquire
• 聞(き)く (kiku): to listen; to ask
• 掛(か)ける (kakeru): to pose (e.g., a question)