Japanese i-adjective
osoi — late, slow 遅い
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 late, slow osoi 遅い | is not late, slow osokunai 遅くない |
| Polite | osoi desu 遅いです | osokunai desu 遅くないです | |
| Past | Plain | was late, slow osokatta 遅かった | was not late, slow osokunakatta 遅くなかった |
| Polite | osokatta desu 遅かったです | osokunakatta desu 遅くなかったです | |
| Presumptive | Plain | will probably be late, slow osoi darō 遅いだろう | osokunai darō 遅くないだろう |
| Polite | osoi deshō 遅いでしょう | osokunai deshō 遅くないでしょう | |
| Conditional | Standard | if it is late, slow osokereba 遅ければ | if it is not late, slow osokunakereba 遅くなければ |
| Connecting form | Standard | osokute 遅くて | osokunakute 遅くなくて |
These conjugations are generated automatically and are intended as a learning guide. Check the natural usage in context when accuracy is important.