い-Adjectives, but negative

い-Adjectives, but negative

Negative descriptor

The negative form of い-adjectives can be used to express that something does not have a certain quality.

To form the negative of an い-adjectives, simply remove the い and add くない. That's it!

There is one exception to this rule: the い-adjective いい​ good. In its negative form, it does not conjugate to いくない, but to よくない​. This is because the origin of the word was よい​ good, which changed over time to also be read as いい​. All conjugations are still based on the original form.

Special Note

良い​ can therefore be read as いい​ or よい​.

い-adjectives can appear at the end of a sentence, often in the pattern A​は​B​, where A is the noun being described and B is the い-adjective.

Just like their dictionary form, negative い-adjectives can also be placed in front of the nouns they describe.

Special Note

The い-adjectives stem refers to the part of the い-adjectives that remains after removing the い. For example, the stem of うつくしい​ is うつくし.

Formation