In this lesson you will learn how to conjugate い-adjectives into the past and the negative form in Japanese. The conjugations are made by replacing the final い with a different ending, as shown in the table below.
| Positive | Negative | |
|---|---|---|
| Present | 〜い | 〜く ない です |
| Past | 〜かった です | 〜く なかった です |
Note the small っ in なかった, which represents a small pause to lengthen the t sound.
Look at the sentences below to see these conjugations applied in sentences.
| English | Japanese |
|---|---|
| It was expensive. | 高かった です。takakatta desu. |
| It was delicious. | おいしかった です。oishikatta desu. |
| The mountain is not big. | 山 は 大きく ない です。yama wa ookiku nai desu. |
| It wasn't expensive. | 高く なかった です。takaku nakatta desu. |
| That was not appropriate. | それ は ふさわしく なかった です。sore wa fusawashiku nakatta desu. |
| This car is not suitable for me. | この 車 は 私 に ふさわしく ない です。kono kuruma wa watashi ni fusawashiku nai desu. |
Note that apart from its functions as indirect object marker, location marker and destination marker, the particle に can be used to mean for as in the last sentence in the table.
