Japanese i-adjective

kiiroi — yellow 黄色い

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 yellow kiiroi 黄色い is not yellow kiirokunai 黄色くない
Polite kiiroi desu 黄色いです kiirokunai desu 黄色くないです
Past Plain was yellow kiirokatta 黄色かった was not yellow kiirokunakatta 黄色くなかった
Polite kiirokatta desu 黄色かったです kiirokunakatta desu 黄色くなかったです
Presumptive Plain will probably be yellow kiiroi darō 黄色いだろう kiirokunai darō 黄色くないだろう
Polite kiiroi deshō 黄色いでしょう kiirokunai deshō 黄色くないでしょう
Conditional Standard if it is yellow kiirokereba 黄色ければ if it is not yellow kiirokunakereba 黄色くなければ
Connecting form Standard kiirokute 黄色くて kiirokunakute 黄色くなくて

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