Japanese i-adjective
kowai — frightening 怖い
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 frightening kowai 怖い | is not frightening kowakunai 怖くない |
| Polite | kowai desu 怖いです | kowakunai desu 怖くないです | |
| Past | Plain | was frightening kowakatta 怖かった | was not frightening kowakunakatta 怖くなかった |
| Polite | kowakatta desu 怖かったです | kowakunakatta desu 怖くなかったです | |
| Presumptive | Plain | will probably be frightening kowai darō 怖いだろう | kowakunai darō 怖くないだろう |
| Polite | kowai deshō 怖いでしょう | kowakunai deshō 怖くないでしょう | |
| Conditional | Standard | if it is frightening kowakereba 怖ければ | if it is not frightening kowakunakereba 怖くなければ |
| Connecting form | Standard | kowakute 怖くて | kowakunakute 怖くなくて |
These conjugations are generated automatically and are intended as a learning guide. Check the natural usage in context when accuracy is important.