-i Adjectives

View a List of い Adjectives with sound

All About い Adjectives

Adjectives are split into 2 groups.

1. い adjectives
2. な adjectives (for な adjectives click here)

Today, we’ll look at い adjectives, but…

Before the lesson, you need to know…

• Adjectives in Japanese are different from English adjectives in that they conjugate like verbs. That is, they have a different form for the past and negative tenses. In this lesson, you will learn the basic forms.
• These are called い adjectives because they end with an い sound. However, a few な adjectives also end in い, like きれい (pretty). You’ll just have to learn these exceptions.

はじめましょう！ Let’s begin…

い ADJECTIVES

Examples of い adjectives are さむい (cold) and あつい (hot) [notice they both end with い; see here for a much longer list].

The past tense of い adjectives is formed by dropping the い and adding かった → さむかった (was cold) and あつかった (was hot).

The negative (non-past) is formed by dropping the い and adding くない → さむくない (not cold) and あつくない (not hot).

LET’S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THIS…

SENTENCE #1: non-past lone adjective

北海道(ほっかいどう)は　さむい　です。

Hokkaido is cold.

Here the adjective さむい (cold) is used by itself (not modifying a noun or anything) so it doesn’t change at all!

SENTENCE #2: non-past modifying adjective

北海道(ほっかいどう)は　さむい　ところ　です。

Hokkaido is a cold place.

This sentence is just like above but now the adjective さむい (cold) is modifying a noun ところ (place), BUT it doesn’t change forms either (just like the English)!

For い adjectives there is no change of the adjective behind a noun or when it’s on its own.

Easy, right?

Well, don’t get too happy. Let’s go negative…

SENTENCE #3: non-past negative

フロリダは　さむくない　です。

Florida is NOT cold.

Now we have the first change. Unlike English, adjectives change when the sentence is negative. It may seem strange at first, but you will get used to it. Simply drop the い and add くない. Before a noun it would be the same: さむくないところ (a not-cold place).

SENTENCE #4: past

この冬(ふゆ)は　さむかった　です。

This winter was cold.

For the past tense, drop the い and add かった.

Note: very often the です at the end is dropped.

The above examples represent the most common usage of い adjectives. But there is also…

SENTENCE #5: past negative

きのうの夜(よる)は　さむくなかった　です。

It wasn’t cold last night.

This is a melding of the negative and the past endings.

Actually, there are more ways to add endings to adjectives, but the above is the most useful.

All of this can be confusing for the beginner. I suggest memorizing a few good ONE-WORD examples. If you spend a few minutes memorizing the following words, you should be able to figure out how to say other adjectives’ forms.

As I mentioned at the top, the endings for い adjectives are the same as verb endings.

Click here to view a list of い adjectives with sound.

Or, if you are ready to move to な adjectives, click here.