Learn Japanese Adjectives: A Comprehensive Guide

If you are learning Japanese and would like to find a detailed and easy-to-understand guide to learning Japanese adjectives, then congratulations! You’ve come to the right place.

Adjective is an essential component of the Japanese language. They can describe, define, and distinguish nouns, plus many other functions. It’s hard for me to imagine a world without adjectives – all poetry, romance, and emotion would disappear.

Please do not skip this article if you are struggling with い-adjectives and な-adjectives and are not proficient in their conjugations. I’ll be happy to introduce you to Japanese adjectives from a comprehensive perspective.  Additionally, this article will help you expand your vocabulary by providing a list 120 of the most common Japanese adjectives.

Note that romanization will not be provided in this article as I assume you should already know the Japanese writing system at this point. If not, please learn them first with the LingoDeer app for free or from our hiragana charts. 

Well, without further ado… please have your notebooks at hand and let’s start learning Japanese adjectives!

In Japanese, there are mainly two types of adjectives: い-adjectives and な-adjectives. The above image shows their basic usage. Now read on for more details!

い-adjectives

Let’s start with い-adjectives. These are called “形容詞（けいようし）” in Japanese, which literally means “adjectives.” From here on out, we will refer to these kinds of adjectives as “い-adjectives” for convenience. 

The most prominent characteristic of い-adjectives is that all of them have the “い” ending. Similar to English adjectives, い-adjectives are mainly used to modify nouns or as a predicative in a sentence. Next, let’s learn about い-adjectives conjugation.

Basic Conjugation

Like English, Japanese is a language with tenses. Japanese has only two tenses, present/future tense and past tense, while there are 16 tenses in English. Another difference is that only verbs are conjugated in English, but both verbs and adjectives are conjugated in Japanese.

Furthermore, in English, the way to make an adjective negative is by adding no or not before it. For example, “Today is not hot.” However, in Japanese, negative statements are made by conjugating adjectives.

Take the い-adjective “暑（あつ）い”as an example. The following table shows its four basic conjugations. If you are unfamiliar with them, please master them as soon as possible because they are essential for newbies.

You may have noticed that the present and future tenses are not separate in Japanese. So how do we determine whether a sentence is in the present or future tense? We can use the rest of the sentence as a clue to figure out its tense.

今日きょうは暑あつい。明日あしたも暑あつい。

It’s hot today. Tomorrow will be hot, too.

In the above example, two nouns, “今日きょう (today)” and “明日あした(tomorrow),” inform us of what the two sentences’ tenses are.

Besides, there are other ways to identify a tense in a sentence, which you will figure out in your future studies. Now, let’s learn more sentences to grasp the basic conjugation of い-adjectives.

東京とうきょうは暑あつい – Tokyo is hot

ニューヨーク は暑あつくない – New York is not hot

去年きょねんの東京とうきょうは暑あつかった – Last year, Tokyo was hot

昨日きのうは暑あつくなかった – Yesterday was not hot

How to place い-adjectives in Japanese

If you’re already familiar with the four basic conjugations of い-adjectives mentioned above, let’s see how い-adjectives are applied in sentences. I will introduce this part in terms of the positions of い-adjectives in sentences. 

• at the end of a sentence

When an い-adjective occurs at the end of a sentence, it is called an PREDICATIVE adjective. If you don’t know much about the concept of sentence clause structure, you can just skip it. Please remember that such a case is common in English as well. The example sentences in the Basic Conjugation part are all cases of い-adjective occurring at the end of a sentence.

東京とうきょうは暑あつい – Tokyo is hot

ニューヨーク は暑あつくない – New York is not hot

去年きょねんの東京とうきょうは暑あつかった – Last year, Tokyo was hot

昨日きのうは暑あつくなかった – Yesterday was not hot

Do you know that Japanese is a language with an honorific system? As a beginner, you are supposed to know the primary difference between polite and casual speech.

The four example sentences above are all in casual speech. So, how can we convert them into polite speech? It’s easy – add “です(desu)” at the end of the sentences. 

東京とうきょうは暑あついです – Tokyo is hot

ニューヨーク は暑あつくないです – New York is not hot

去年きょねんの東京とうきょうは暑あつかったです – Last year, Tokyo was hot

昨日きのうは暑あつくなかったです – Yesterday was not hot

•  before a noun

Like most adjectives in English, い-adjectives can also be placed before a noun. This is called ATTRIBUTIVE adjectives. Again, simply ignore it if you are confused about the sentence composition for now. Let’s take a look at these specific sets of examples below:

暑あつい夏なつ – hot summer

昨日きのう、面白おもしろくない映画えいがを見みました – I watched an uninteresting movie yesterday

You may notice that in the above examples, the い-adjectives, 暑（あつい and 面白おもしろくない, are both in the present/future tense, despite the change of negative and positive in the statement. So, can past tense い-adjectives occur before a noun? The answer depends. Generally speaking, when past tense い-adjectives come before a noun, it contains a meaning of “change.” Therefore, it can’t be used for something constant.

暑あつかった夏なつ × 

面白おもしろくなかった映画えいが 〇

美うつくしかった女優じょゆう 〇

The first sentence has no grammatical errors, but it doesn’t sound very natural for Japanese speakers.

The second sentence is correct. A movie that was once boring has since become attractive (to me) for some reason. Similarly, in the third sentence, the actress who used to be beautiful is now probably no longer beautiful due to advanced age (indeed, I think each age has its charms.)

• in the middle of a sentence 

い-adjectives can also occur in the middle of sentences. In this case, they connect two simple sentences to a compound sentence. If you don’t know what a compound sentence is, the following example may help you.

That restaurant was delicious and the servers were friendly.

In the above sentence, “and” connects two simple sentences, forming a compound sentence. Did you get it? Good! Then, how can we combine two simple sentences with い-adjectives in Japanese?

That restaurant was delicious – あの レストラン は美味おいしかった

The servers were friendly – 店員てんいんが優やさしかった

To answer this question, I’d like to introduce another conjugation of い-adjectives to you – the te-form (て形). By turning the い ending of an い-adjective into くて (美味おいしい → 美味おいしくて), we can turn it into its te-form. The te-form is used to connect two simple sentences.

あの レストラン は美味おいしくて、店員てんいんも優やさしかった。

That restaurant was delicious and the servers were friendly.

I’m guessing you are wondering what the tense of a te-form い-adjective is. Well, it doesn’t have a tense. We can only judge a sentence’s tense by its end part. In the above example, “優やさしかった” indicates that it’s a past tense sentence.

This example shows that the restaurant is delicious (美味おいしい), but what if the restaurant’s food isn’t so delicious  (美味おいしくない)? Fortunately, all you need to do is turn the ending い into くて, 美味おいしくない→美味おいしくなくて.

あの レストラン は美味おいしくなくて、店員てんいんも優やさしくなかった。

That restaurant was not delicious and the servers were not friendly.

Some tricky, irregular い-adjectives

After studying the above, I believe you have a basic understanding of い-adjectives. It could be said that the grammar rules I mentioned earlier apply to 99.9% of い-adjectives. Next, let’s learn some tricky ones. They are like a few lilies in a field of roses.

いい

When I was a Japanese language teacher in a high school in 2020, there were always students complaining that one い-adjective in particular, いい, was difficult. However, it’s not difficult at all! The literal meaning of いい is good or nice, and its kanji form is 良いい. What most learners find difficult is its conjugation.

いい equals よい. When it comes to conjugation, you don’t want to conjugate いい but よい. Let’s think of よい as the stunt double of いい, the big star, to do many difficult jobs for it! 😉

かわいい

かわいい means cute or lovely, and the kanji form is 可愛い. It was just an ordinary い-adjective, but when grading students’ assignments, I noticed that many students made mistakes in its conjugation. If you have the same problem, you may be confused by its double い.

The first い in かわいい is a part of the kanji, 愛 (わい). Like other adjectives, かわいい has only one ending, the second い.

多い、少ない、近い、遠い

多おおい and 少すくない respectively mean “many” and “few.” 近ちかい and 遠とおい respectively mean “near” and “far.” They seem like just four common adjectives by their meanings. However, it would be best for you to be careful about their applications.

Most い-adjectives can freely occur in the ATTRIBUTIVE position (before the noun) and the PREDICATIVE position (at the end of the sentence). However, the above four ones are restricted to the predicative position only.

As you see in the table, these four adjectives cannot occur in the ATTRIBUTIVE position (before the noun), but if you change their endings from い to く and add the particle の, they can be placed before the noun. My beginner friend, don’t worry about why this is just yet – just remember this particular rule for these four adjectives.

い-Adjectives with しい ending

First of all, please don’t be nervous. We are not talking about a new kind of adjective here. Adjectives ending in しい still belong to the group of い-adjectives. Additionally, their conjugations and other grammatical rules are no different.

い-adjectives ending in しい are often used to describe emotions, feelings, and personal qualities, as in the following examples:

嬉うれしい – happy

悲かなしい – sad

寂さびしい – lonely

大人おとなしい – gentle

恥はずかしい – shameful

In Japanese, い-adjectives that end in しい and contain an emotional meaning can only be used to describe one’s own feelings, but not others. Why? Because we can’t read people’s minds and know how they are feeling. I know this sounds strange because, in English, we would say things like “you are sad.” However, い-adjectives cannot be used to describe others’ feelings or emotions.

私わたしは悲かなしいです – I’m sad 〇

あなたは悲かなしいです – You are sad ×

Nevertheless, if it is an interrogative sentence, you can use emotional い-adjectives that end with しい to ask someone how they feel.

(あなたは) 悲かなしいですか – Are you sad? 〇

It should also be noted that not all い-adjectives ending in しい describe people’s emotions.

な-Adjectives

After reading the above, I’m sure you’ve already grasped the gist of い-Adjectives. Next, let’s take a look at the application of な-adjectives. な-adjectives are called “形容動詞けいようどうし” in Japanese, which means adjectival noun. 

The first thing we need to figure out is that い-adjective and な-adjective are the two main groups that comprise Japanese adjectives. In other words, the functions of these two categories are the same. The only difference is in their conjugations.

You may be confused as to why there are two types of adjectives in Japanese when English has only one. Well, we may need to learn a bit about the history of the Japanese language. 

い-adjectives are mainly native Japanese words (wago), but they are very limited in number and cannot meet the needs of many expressions. Therefore, since the Heian period, Japanese people have converted nouns with adjectival meanings into adjectives, called な-adjectives (adjective nouns) today. The origins of these nouns tend to be borrowed words from Chinese.

Basic Conjugation

As I introduced in the い-Adjective section, conjugations in Japanese are mainly changes in tense and statement. All な-adjectives have the だ ending, but when you look up them in the dictionary, だ is missing. For example, the な-adjective “安全あんぜんだ” (safe) can only be found as “安全あんぜん” when you look it up in the dictionary.

Similar to い-adjectives, which rely on changing their い ending in order to conjugate, な-adjectives also depend on their だ ending.

One more thing to note: the spoken form of ではない is じゃない. Similarly, ではなかった equals じゃなかった. Besides, unlike with い-Adjectives, when a な-adjective is placed before a noun, you must change its ending だ into な—for example, 安全あんぜんな所ところ. This is why it’s called な-adjective.

Where can な-adjectives be placed in a sentence

In the above session, we looked at a breakdown of な-adjectives. Next, let’s look at their specific application in sentences.

• at the end of a sentence

Like い-adjectives, when a な-adjective occurs at the end of a sentence, it is called an PREDICATIVE adjective. As I mentioned earlier, い-adjective and な-adjective are the same in their application – the only difference is their conjugations. Here are a few examples of な-adjectives placed at the end of sentences.

この国くには安全あんぜんだ – This country is safe.

あの町まちは綺麗きれいだった – That town was beautiful.

日本語にほんごが上手じょうずでは ( じゃ ) ない – Not good at Japanese.

店員てんいんは親切しんせつでは ( じゃ ) なかった – The servers were not friendly.

I mentioned that Japanese is a language with an honorific system. Respect in Japanese is mainly expressed at the end of sentences. How can we convert the above casual sentences into polite speech? 

You may remember that い-adjectives are converted to honorific speech by adding です directly at the end of the sentence. However, な-adjectives work a little bit differently. To convert a な-adjective from the casual form to the polite form, we need to change its だ ending.

Therefore, the above four casual sentences are converted into the following:

この国くには安全あんぜんです – This country is safe.

あの町まちは綺麗きれいでした – That town was beautiful.

日本語にほんごが上手じょうずではありません – Not good at Japanese.

店員てんいんは親切しんせつではありませんでした – The servers were not friendly.

• before a noun

When a な-adjective is placed before a noun, it is called an ATTRIBUTIVE adjective. You need to change the ending from “だ” to “な” or put it after the present negative of casual speech (-ではない、-じゃない）

安全あんぜんな国くに – safe country

綺麗きれいな町まち – beautiful city

上手じょうずじゃない日本語にほんご – not good at Japanese

親切しんせつではない店員てんいん – unfriendly servers

Likewise, when past tense な-adjectives are placed before a noun, it states a fact of the past that is no longer true now.

綺麗きれいだった町まち – The town used to be beautiful 

親切しんせつではなかった店員てんいん – The staff was unfriendly

In the first example, the town used to be beautiful or clean. Now perhaps many tourists have made it dirty. In the second example, the staff used to be unfriendly, but now it is possible that new staff is hired or the same one has been trained to be friendly.

• in the middle of a sentence

We have already discussed the concept of compound and simple sentences before. A な-adjective may also appear in the middle of a sentence and be used to connect two simple sentences. In order to do these, we need the te- form, remember? The te-form of a な-adjective is to change its ending from “だ” to “で.”

綺麗きれいだ → 綺麗きれいで

親切しんせつだ → 親切しんせつで

 

あのサロンは綺麗きれいで、スタッフも親切しんせつだ。

That salon is beautiful and the staff is friendly.

Neither an い-adjective’s nor a な-adjective’s te-form indicates the tense. Instead, the tense is reflected by the last part of the sentence.

Some tricky な-adjectives

Here are several な-adjectives that confuse many beginners, so please be careful!

嫌い

The meaning of “きらい” is “dislike.” It looks like an い-adjective, but it is not. It would be best if you remembered it as an exception. Its conjugation is not different from other な-adjectives.

嫌きらいな人ひと – disliked person

数学すうがくが嫌きらいだ – I dislike math

同じ

We have already mentioned that when an adjective is placed before a noun, its ending needs to be changed from だ to な. When it comes to this rule, 同おなじ is the black sheep of the な-adjective family because it should be placed before nouns without な.

同おなじ人ひと – the same person

同おなじ花はな – the same flower

綺麗

Many of my students will take the な-adjective 綺麗きれい (beautiful) as an い-adjective. The い is part of the kanji 麗(れい), not the word ending. Thus, 綺麗きれい is no different from any other な-adjective.

綺麗きれいなスカート – beautiful skirt

日本は綺麗きれいだ – Japan is beautiful

小さな、大きな

Don’t these two words look familiar? Remember we mentioned “小ちいさい” and “大おおきい” in the “some tricky い-adjectives” part? First, let’s make it clear that “小ちいさい” and “大おおきい” are い-adjectives, while “小ちいさな” and “大おおきな are adnominal adjectives (not な-adjectives.)

Although they are not な-adjectives, I prefer to mention them here as they are very important. The primary difference between them and な-adjective is that they do not have the ending だ and cannot be placed at the end of a sentence (PREDICATIVE). They can only be put before a noun.

大おおきな問題もんだい – big issue

問題もんだいは大おおきな × 

 

小ちいさな会社かいしゃ – small company

会社かいしゃは小ちいさな ×

Well, “大おおきな,” “小ちいさな” is mainly used to modify nouns with abstract concepts, in the above example, “問題もんだい (issue)” and “会社かいしゃ (company)” are both abstract concepts in human society. In contrast, “大おおきい,” “小ちいさい” tend to modify visible, concrete things.

大おおきい リンゴ – big apple

リンゴは大おおきい – The apple is big

 

小ちいさい丸まる – small circle

丸まるは小ちいさい – The circle is small

How to connect い-adjectives and な-adjectives together

Remember when we discussed い-adjectives and な-adjectives joining two simple sentences? We need to convert them to the te-form.

So how do we put two い-adjectives or two な-adjectives or an い-adjective and a な-adjective together as if we were constructing Gundam models? Again, you need to convert them into their respective te-forms. The following four sets of examples can give you a clear explanation.

• 明あかるくて優やさしい人ひと – a sunny and gentle person (two い-adjectives, 明あかるい, and 優やさしい)
• 綺麗きれいで静しずかな町まち – beautiful and quiet town (two な-adjectives, 綺麗きれい, and 静しずか)
• 明あかるくて元気げんきな子供こども – a cheerful and energetic child (an い-adjective and a な-adjective)
• 元気げんきで明あかるい子供こども – an energetic and cheerful child (Yes, the order can be reversed)

Nouns can also be adjectives

As I mentioned, な-adjectives were created to make up for the deficiency of い-adjectives. They are converted from adjectival nouns. For example, 綺麗きれい means beauty, but when converted into a な-adjective 綺麗きれいな, its meaning becomes beautiful.

In modern Japanese, many nouns are still used as adjectives without being converted into adjectives. When a noun modifies another noun, we need to join them with の.

私わたしのカバン – my bag

緑みどりの植物しょくぶつ – green plants

ネコ の食たべ物もの – cat food

120 most common Japanese adjectives list

Dear readers, thank you for reading this far. If you wish to expand your vocabulary of Japanese adjectives a bit more, below is a list of 120 essential Japanese adjectives. You can also download the pdf.