Japanese i-adjective
kawaii — cute, pretty 可愛い
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 cute, pretty kawaii 可愛い | is not cute, pretty kawaikunai 可愛くない |
| Polite | kawaii desu 可愛いです | kawaikunai desu 可愛くないです | |
| Past | Plain | was cute, pretty kawaikatta 可愛かった | was not cute, pretty kawaikunakatta 可愛くなかった |
| Polite | kawaikatta desu 可愛かったです | kawaikunakatta desu 可愛くなかったです | |
| Presumptive | Plain | will probably be cute, pretty kawaii darō 可愛いだろう | kawaikunai darō 可愛くないだろう |
| Polite | kawaii deshō 可愛いでしょう | kawaikunai deshō 可愛くないでしょう | |
| Conditional | Standard | if it is cute, pretty kawaikereba 可愛ければ | if it is not cute, pretty kawaikunakereba 可愛くなければ |
| Connecting form | Standard | kawaikute 可愛くて | kawaikunakute 可愛くなくて |
These conjugations are generated automatically and are intended as a learning guide. Check the natural usage in context when accuracy is important.