- in Adjectives by スティーブ・ダゴスティーノ
Master Japanese Adjective Conjugations With This Handy Guide!
Adjective conjugations are a part of Japanese that can be very confusing, particularly to westerners who have never hear of such a thing. Certainly the concept is foreign, so let’s see if we can get a handle on how these conjugations work.
First off, let’s just quickly cover the two types of adjectives: -い and -な adjectives. We know the basic uses of each in that when they are used to modify nouns, we place them before nouns just like in English. For -い adjectives, we leave them as-is, and for -な adjectives, we have to use -な before the noun. Pretty straightforward, yes? But when they are being used in the predicate, they have to be dealt with in a whole different way – conjugations.
Now, let’s start with -い adjectives. Just like with verbs, we have conjugations that are non-past (present and future) and past. Within those, we conjugate to reflect negative, and we do it both formally and informally because Japanese is just that way.
–い Adjectives | Informal | Formal |
Non-Past | Normal with no change | Same as informal and add です to the end |
Non-Past Negative | Drop the –い and add –くない | Same as informal +です OR Drop the –い and add –くありませ |
Past | Drop the –い and add –かった | Same as informal and add です to the end |
Past Negative | Drop the –い and add –くなかった | Same as informal +です OR Drop the –い and add –くありませでした |
Let’s try an example using “fast”: はやい
はやい | Informal | Formal |
Non-Past | はやい | はやいです |
Non-Past Negative | はやくない | はやくないです OR はやくありません |
Past | はやかった | はやかったです |
Past Negative | はやくなかった | はやくなかったですOR はやくありませんでした |
The great thing about Japanese is that there are very few irregulars. In the case of adjectives, there’s only one: “good”. We know it as いい, but it conjugates as よい. Therefore, it works like this:
いい | Informal | Formal |
Non-Past | いい | いいです |
Non-Past Negative | よくない | よくないです OR よくありません |
Past | よかった | よかったです |
Past Negative | よくなかった | よくなかったですOR よくありませんでした |
Now, let’s move onto -な adjectives. These are super easy in comparison to -い adjectives, as they themselves do not conjugate. Instead, we just drop the -な and add endings. I’ll make things a little less tl;dr and jump straight to an example. How about let’s use げんき? This is a good one because although it ends with an -い sound, it is not an -い adjective. I’ll explain that in a minute. For now, let’s put it to use.
–な Adjectives | Informal | Formal |
Non-Past | げんきだ | げんきです |
Non-Past Negative | げんきじゃない OR げんきでわない | げんきでわありません |
Past | げんきだった | げんきでした |
Past Negative | げんきじゃなかったOR げんきでわなかった | げんきでわありませんでした |
Ok, so back to the whole adjectives ending in “い” that are not -い adjectives. The simplest way I can think of to help you remember which ones are and are not -い adjectives is that the kanji for adjectives are typically two and adjectives are one kanji and some trailing hiragana ending in -い. Until you learn these kanji, it’s just something you pick up on with practice. The awesome part (/sarc) is that it is far from a hard and fast rule, but at least it’s a more-often-than-not situation. But here are some examples:
漢字 | ひらがな | Romaji | Meaning |
好き | すき | Suki | Like, love |
有名 | ゆうめい | Yuumei | Famous |
きれい | きれい | Kirei | Pretty, beautiful |
丁寧 | ていねい | Teinei | polite |
嫌い | きらい | Kirai | to not like |
便利 | べんり | Benri | useful, convenient |
元気 | げんき | Genki | healthy |
大好き | だいすき | Daisuki | Passionate |
無理 | むり | Muri | unreasonable |
Ok, so those are the basics. Now that we’ve established how we conjugate the different kinds of adjectives by dropping the final sound and adding endings, here are some other endings and how they are used. I’ll give the meaning, what ending to use, and one example each of an -い adjective and a -な adjective.
Meaning | –い Addition | Example | –な Addition | Example |
Too [adj] | -すぎる -すぎます | あつすぎる あつすぎます | -すぎる -すぎます | へたすぎる へたすぎます |
Looks / seems [adj] | -そう | ふるそう | -そう | べんりそう |
· Becomes -な adjective (-そうな) · いい becomes よさそう · Adjectives ending in -ない change to -なさそう (e.g., きたない -> きたなさそう) | ||||
Become [adj] | -くなる -くなります | さむくなる さむくなります | -になる -になります | すきになる すきになります |
Make into [adj] | -くする -くします | あかるくする あかるくします | -にする -にします | ゆうめいにする ゆうめいにします |
[adj] -ness | -さ | よわさ | -さ | しずかさ |
If it is [adj] | -ければ | ちいさければ | -なれば -であれば | ひまなれば ひまであれば |
If it is not [adj] | -くなければ | おいしくなければ | -でなければ | びょうきでなければ |
[adj] and (other adj) | -くて | おおきくてせがたかい | -で | かんたんでらく |
Adverb form | -く | はやく | -に | げんきに |
Just to wrap things up, I wanted to go over the adjectives used in this guide. Obviously, there are so many adjectives that it would be impossible to include them here, but if I’m going to use examples, I should probably tell you what they are and what they mean…
漢字 | ひらがな | Romaji | Meaning |
早い | はやい | Hayai | Fast, early |
元気 | げんき | Genki | Healthy, cheerful |
暑い | あつい | Atsui | Hot |
下手 | へた | Heta | Bad at |
古い | ふるい | Furui | Old |
便利 | べんり | benri | Useful, convenient |
汚い | きたない | Kitanai | Dirty |
寒い | さむい | Samui | Cold |
好き | すき | Suki | Likeable, to like |
明るい | あかるい | Akarui | Bright |
有名 | ゆうめい | Yuumei | Famous |
弱い | よわい | Yowai | Weak |
静か | しずか | Shizuka | Quiet, peaceful |
小さい | ちいさい | Chiisai | Small |
暇 | ひま | Hima | Free (time) |
美味しい | おいしい | Oishii | Delicious |
病気 | びょうき | Byouki | Ill, sick |
大きい | おおきい | Ookii | Big |
背が高い | せがたかい | Segatakai | Tall (person) |
簡単 | かんたん | Kantan | Easy |
楽 | らく | Raku | Simple |