-i adjectives are one of the two adjective groups in Japanese, the other group being the -na adjectives. This list focuses on how to bend -i adjectives.

First of all, the reason these adjectives are called, as a group, “-i adjectives” is simply because every word ends with an i. Now, you may have seen the word “white” (this is just an example, this rule goes for all -i adjectives there is in the Japanese language) written like 白かった shirokatta instead of 白い shiroi, but this is simply because the word is bent in the past affirmative tense. There are four tenses in total (if you count the original form ending with -i as one tense), every tense having a slightly different ending of the -i adjective. Let me add this before I continue and eventually forget about it altogether: what will change with the different tenses is the okurigana, the hiragana that follows the kanji for the bent word. Time to learn the different tenses of -i adjectives!

As I said somewhere above, there are four tenses used with -i adjectives and every one of these tenses bends the word in a different way. Wait a second, let me make a chart over the tenses and teh way to bend words in Photoshop and hope it’s possible to add images here… —

OK, so I’m back with the finished table. Looks pretty nice doesn’t it? Click on the image to see it’s attachment page over at my blog.

Now to review the table you, hopefully, just thoroughly studied. I understand it may be confusing for some. First we have the present affirmative tense which also happens to be the normal -i adjective (in this case 青い aoi which means “blue”) which always end in -i with no exceptions! The rest of the forms (past affirmative, present negative, and past negative) all remove the -i at the end of the adjective and adds かった -katta, くない -kunai, or くなかった -kunakatta instead. The next tense we have is the past affirmative tense where we remove the -i and add かった katta instead. 青い aoi therefore becomes 青かった aokatta literally translates as “was blue.” After past affirmative we have the present and past negative which both removes the -i at the end of the word and adds くない kunai and くなかった kunakatta (the latter being a mix of くない kunai, the present negative, and かった katta, the past affirmative), respectively. That means the word “blue” can be written as either 青い aoi (simply just “blue”), 青かった aokatta (“was blue”), 青くない aokunai (“is not blue”), or 青くなかった aokunakatta (“was not blue”).

To make the -i adjective formal, simply add the verb “to be” です desu to the end of the sentence.

There is only one irregular adjective in Japanese so learn it now: いい ii. When written or said alone, it’s simply いい ii, but in the past affirmative and present and past negative tenses, the first い i_ is becomes よ _yo instead and the second い i_ is conjugated as according to the rules explained above. That means that the word “good” or いい _ii becomes よかった yokatta (you have probably heard this before if you watch a lot of anime and is often then translated as “I’m glad” or “thank goodness”), よくない yokunai, and よくなかった yokunakatta in the past affirmative, present negative, and past negative tenses, respectively.

If anything is unclear from what I’ve said so far, please feel free to leave a comment or send me a private message (or an e-mail to rukishou@live.se) and I will try to answer whatever question you have as well as I can. Also, I will add the different conjugations as well as some -i adjectives, including the ones I’ve just as examples in this text, so you can practice them with the iKnow! application. 頑張って！

Contact: rukishou@live.se
Visit my blog: The Verb “to be” 「だ」 since the -na adjectives actually change the copula (だ da, です desu) rather than the actual adjective (the only thing that may change about the adjective is whether the ending -na should be included or dropped out).