Common word› JLPT N2 › Freq. Frequency Top 20,000 Conjugation 嘆く · godan verb (-ku)
Form Positive Negative Dictionary 嘆なげ く 嘆なげ かない Polite 嘆なげ きます 嘆なげ きません Past polite 嘆なげ きました 嘆なげ きませんでした Past 嘆なげ いた 嘆なげ かなかった Te-form 嘆なげ いて 嘆なげ かないで Desire 嘆なげ きたい 嘆なげ きたくない Potential 嘆なげ ける 嘆なげ けない Passive 嘆なげ かれる 嘆なげ かれない Causative 嘆なげ かせる 嘆なげ かせない Causative passive 嘆なげ かせられる also 嘆なげ かされる 嘆なげ かせられない also 嘆なげ かされない Volitional 嘆なげ こう Polite volitional 嘆なげ きましょう Imperative 嘆なげ け 嘆なげ くな Conditional 嘆なげ けば 嘆なげ かなければ Tara conditional 嘆なげ いたら 嘆なげ かなかったら
Usage patterns 〈 事こと 〉 を 嘆なげ く to lament/deplore something
He lamented his own bad luck.
「 〜 」 と 嘆なげ く to lament, saying "..."
"There's no more time," she lamented.
〈 事こと 〉 の 乱みだ れを 嘆なげ く to deplore the disorder/decline of something
He deplored the disorder of society.
Transitive / intransitive 嘆く is used both transitively and intransitively: transitively as in 不運を嘆く ("to lament one's bad luck"), and intransitively as in 彼は深く嘆いた ("he grieved deeply").
Related words 悲しむ is the common, general word for feeling sad, while 嘆く suggests a deeper, often outwardly expressed lamentation.
悔やむ centers on personal regret over one's own actions or missed chances, while 嘆く can lament broader misfortunes or external events.
憂う is a literary word for feeling anxious grief over a situation, close in tone to the formal, written use of 嘆く .
嘆く is more literary and stresses grieving or lamenting a situation, while 泣く specifically involves shedding tears.
嘆く emphasizes audible or expressive grief and lamentation, while 憂える can describe a quieter, inward brooding sorrow.
Don't confuse with 嘆じる looks and sounds similar to 嘆く and shares the meaning of grieving, but it is always intransitive and used only in more literary, old-fashioned contexts.
嘆く is the verb meaning 'to grieve or lament', while 嘆 is the related noun for the sigh or lamentation itself, so the two are easily mixed up despite differing in part of speech.
Word family grief; sorrow; lamentation
grieve deeply; lament; mourn
spend one's days grieving; grieve away one's days
Written forms 嘆なげ く Usage 87%
Standard kanji spelling; the most common form in modern Japanese.
なげく Usage 8%
歎なげ く Usage 5%
Variant kanji form; less common and somewhat literary or old-fashioned.
Etymology Derived from the classical verb 嘆く (nageku), which has been used since Old Japanese. The kanji 嘆 is a phono-semantic compound with 口 (mouth) and 難 (difficult), suggesting the idea of expressing difficulty or sorrow.
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