Japanese i-adjective
nigai — bitter 苦い
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 bitter nigai 苦い | is not bitter nigakunai 苦くない |
| Polite | nigai desu 苦いです | nigakunai desu 苦くないです | |
| Past | Plain | was bitter nigakatta 苦かった | was not bitter nigakunakatta 苦くなかった |
| Polite | nigakatta desu 苦かったです | nigakunakatta desu 苦くなかったです | |
| Presumptive | Plain | will probably be bitter nigai darō 苦いだろう | nigakunai darō 苦くないだろう |
| Polite | nigai deshō 苦いでしょう | nigakunai deshō 苦くないでしょう | |
| Conditional | Standard | if it is bitter nigakereba 苦ければ | if it is not bitter nigakunakereba 苦くなければ |
| Connecting form | Standard | nigakute 苦くて | nigakunakute 苦くなくて |
These conjugations are generated automatically and are intended as a learning guide. Check the natural usage in context when accuracy is important.