Japanese i-adjective

yasashii — gentle 優しい

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 gentle yasashii 優しい is not gentle yasashikunai 優しくない
Polite yasashii desu 優しいです yasashikunai desu 優しくないです
Past Plain was gentle yasashikatta 優しかった was not gentle yasashikunakatta 優しくなかった
Polite yasashikatta desu 優しかったです yasashikunakatta desu 優しくなかったです
Presumptive Plain will probably be gentle yasashii darō 優しいだろう yasashikunai darō 優しくないだろう
Polite yasashii deshō 優しいでしょう yasashikunai deshō 優しくないでしょう
Conditional Standard if it is gentle yasashikereba 優しければ if it is not gentle yasashikunakereba 優しくなければ
Connecting form Standard yasashikute 優しくて yasashikunakute 優しくなくて

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