Japanese i-adjective

oishii — delicious 美味しい

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 delicious oishii 美味しい is not delicious oishikunai 美味しくない
Polite oishii desu 美味しいです oishikunai desu 美味しくないです
Past Plain was delicious oishikatta 美味しかった was not delicious oishikunakatta 美味しくなかった
Polite oishikatta desu 美味しかったです oishikunakatta desu 美味しくなかったです
Presumptive Plain will probably be delicious oishii darō 美味しいだろう oishikunai darō 美味しくないだろう
Polite oishii deshō 美味しいでしょう oishikunai deshō 美味しくないでしょう
Conditional Standard if it is delicious oishikereba 美味しければ if it is not delicious oishikunakereba 美味しくなければ
Connecting form Standard oishikute 美味しくて oishikunakute 美味しくなくて

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