Japanese i-adjective

amai — sweet 甘い

Explore the principal positive, negative, past, non-past and conditional forms of this Japanese adjective.

How i-adjectives conjugate

The final changes to create negative, past and connecting forms. The adjective itself carries this grammatical information, so a separate verb is not required in the plain forms.

Conjugation table

The English glosses are approximate; the natural translation depends on the surrounding sentence.

Form Style Positive Negative
Present (non-past) Plain is sweet amai 甘い is not sweet amakunai 甘くない
Polite amai desu 甘いです amakunai desu 甘くないです
Past Plain was sweet amakatta 甘かった was not sweet amakunakatta 甘くなかった
Polite amakatta desu 甘かったです amakunakatta desu 甘くなかったです
Presumptive Plain will probably be sweet amai darō 甘いだろう amakunai darō 甘くないだろう
Polite amai deshō 甘いでしょう amakunai deshō 甘くないでしょう
Conditional Standard if it is sweet amakereba 甘ければ if it is not sweet amakunakereba 甘くなければ
Connecting form Standard amakute 甘くて amakunakute 甘くなくて

These conjugations are generated automatically and are intended as a learning guide. Check the natural usage in context when accuracy is important.