沿う

Japanese
Kanji in this term
沿
そ
Grade: 6
kun’yomi

Etymology

From Old Japanese. Used in the Man'yōshū, completed some time after 759 CE.[1]

Pronunciation

Verb

沿う (intransitive, godan conjugation, hiragana そう, rōmaji sou)

  1. to run along (a river, railway, road, etc.), to line (the shore etc.)
  2. to follow (rules, guidelines, etc.)

Conjugation
Conjugation of "沿う" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs.)
Stem forms
Imperfective (未然形) 沿わ そわ sowa
Continuative (連用形) 沿い そい soi
Terminal (終止形) 沿う そう sou
Attributive (連体形) 沿う そう sou
Hypothetical (仮定形) 沿え そえ soe
Imperative (命令形) 沿え そえ soe
Key constructions
Passive 沿われる そわれる sowareru
Causative 沿わせる
沿わす		 そわせる
そわす		 sowaseru
sowasu
Potential 沿える そえる soeru
Volitional 沿おう そおう soō
Negative 沿わない そわない sowanai
Negative continuative 沿わず そわず sowazu
Formal 沿います そいます soimasu
Perfective 沿った そった sotta
Conjunctive 沿って そって sotte
Hypothetical conditional 沿えば そえば soeba

Usage notes

Often used in a kind of adverbial phrase construction, ...に沿って... (... ni sotte ...), with a general meaning of along, in keeping with, along the lines of, in parallel with.

  • 自 (じ)分 (ぶん)の期 (き)待 (たい)に沿 (そ)って生 (せい)活 (かつ)する
    jibun no kitai ni sotte seikatsu suru
    to live in keeping with one's own expectations

References
  1. c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 14, poem 3485), text here
  2. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
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