Japanese i-adjective

kuroi — black 黒い

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 black kuroi 黒い is not black kurokunai 黒くない
Polite kuroi desu 黒いです kurokunai desu 黒くないです
Past Plain was black kurokatta 黒かった was not black kurokunakatta 黒くなかった
Polite kurokatta desu 黒かったです kurokunakatta desu 黒くなかったです
Presumptive Plain will probably be black kuroi darō 黒いだろう kurokunai darō 黒くないだろう
Polite kuroi deshō 黒いでしょう kurokunai deshō 黒くないでしょう
Conditional Standard if it is black kurokereba 黒ければ if it is not black kurokunakereba 黒くなければ
Connecting form Standard kurokute 黒くて kurokunakute 黒くなくて

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