音読み: エイ
訓読み: およぐ
画数: 8
部首: さんずい（氵）
Meaning
Swim
- Basic forms
- 泳ぐ — to swim / base form
- 泳ぎます — polite / I swim / masu form
- 泳いだ — swam / ta form
- 泳いで — swim and …; swimming / te form
- 泳がない — don’t swim / negative
- 泳げば — if (I) swim / conditional
- 泳げ ・ 泳いでみろ — swim! / try swimming! / imperative
- Other common forms
- 泳ぎたい — want to swim / 〜たい form
- 泳げる — can swim / potential
- 泳がれた — was swum (passive) / passive
- 泳がせる — make someone swim / causative
- More
- 泳ごう — let’s swim / volitional
- 泳いでいる — is swimming / progressive
- 泳がせている — letting (someone) swim / causative progressive
泳ぐ（およぐ） is a godan verb. The final ぐ changes to ぎ, げ, or が depending on the form, and to いで for the te-form (泳いで).
- 泳ぐ — to swim
- 水泳 — swimming
- 平泳ぎ — breaststroke
- 背泳ぎ — backstroke
- 遠泳 — long-distance swimming
More examples - tap to expand
- 競泳 — competitive swimming
- 遊泳 — swimming, bathing
- 潜泳 — underwater swimming
- 泳法 — swimming technique
The radical 氵(さんずい) indicates water. Combined with 永 (えい), meaning “long flow,” this character evokes the idea of swimming along a current. That’s why 泳 means “to swim.”