Japanese i-adjective

ookii — big 大きい

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 big ookii 大きい is not big ookikunai 大きくない
Polite ookii desu 大きいです ookikunai desu 大きくないです
Past Plain was big ookikatta 大きかった was not big ookikunakatta 大きくなかった
Polite ookikatta desu 大きかったです ookikunakatta desu 大きくなかったです
Presumptive Plain will probably be big ookii darō 大きいだろう ookikunai darō 大きくないだろう
Polite ookii deshō 大きいでしょう ookikunai deshō 大きくないでしょう
Conditional Standard if it is big ookikereba 大きければ if it is not big ookikunakereba 大きくなければ
Connecting form Standard ookikute 大きくて ookikunakute 大きくなくて

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