Japanese i-adjective
chiisai — small 小さい
Explore the principal positive, negative, past, non-past and conditional forms of this Japanese adjective.
How i-adjectives conjugate
The final い 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 small chiisai 小さい | is not small chiisakunai 小さくない |
| Polite | chiisai desu 小さいです | chiisakunai desu 小さくないです | |
| Past | Plain | was small chiisakatta 小さかった | was not small chiisakunakatta 小さくなかった |
| Polite | chiisakatta desu 小さかったです | chiisakunakatta desu 小さくなかったです | |
| Presumptive | Plain | will probably be small chiisai darō 小さいだろう | chiisakunai darō 小さくないだろう |
| Polite | chiisai deshō 小さいでしょう | chiisakunai deshō 小さくないでしょう | |
| Conditional | Standard | if it is small chiisakereba 小さければ | if it is not small chiisakunakereba 小さくなければ |
| Connecting form | Standard | chiisakute 小さくて | chiisakunakute 小さくなくて |
These conjugations are generated automatically and are intended as a learning guide. Check the natural usage in context when accuracy is important.