Japanese i-adjective

itai — painful 痛い

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 painful itai 痛い is not painful itakunai 痛くない
Polite itai desu 痛いです itakunai desu 痛くないです
Past Plain was painful itakatta 痛かった was not painful itakunakatta 痛くなかった
Polite itakatta desu 痛かったです itakunakatta desu 痛くなかったです
Presumptive Plain will probably be painful itai darō 痛いだろう itakunai darō 痛くないだろう
Polite itai deshō 痛いでしょう itakunai deshō 痛くないでしょう
Conditional Standard if it is painful itakereba 痛ければ if it is not painful itakunakereba 痛くなければ
Connecting form Standard itakute 痛くて itakunakute 痛くなくて

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