Conjugating にくい and やすい
“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” - Napoleon Bonaparte
The great thing about にくい and やすい is that you already know how to conjugate them to past tense (most common) and negative / past negative (not as common). Can you guess what rules にくい and やすい use for conjugation? Hint: Look at the last kana on both にくい and やすい.
にくい and やすい conjugate just like い adjectives, meaning all you have to do is change the い to the right tense.
にくい
にくかった
にくくない
にくくなかった
やすい
やすかった
やすくない
やすくなかった
In general, I’d say the most important one to know is past tense (〜かった). Negative and past negative just aren’t all that common, though it’s good to know it exists. Instead of negative tense, you can just use the opposite word (i.e. instead of saying “not difficult” you could say “easy”). Our focus is mainly going to be on past tense, though you should know negative and past negative just because you know the い adjective conjugation rules.
Let’s take a look at some examples before we move on to the next page, where we’ll practice にくい, やすい, and their conjugations. We’ll look at some familiar sentences so you can focus on the grammar.
すし は たべやすい です
Sushi is easy to eat
すし は たべやすかった です
Sushi was easy to eat
かんじ は よみにくい です
Kanji is difficult to read
かんじ は よみにくかった です
Kanji was difficult to read
One thing to remember is that with い adjectives, even when you conjugate them to past tense (or negative, or past negative) you still want to end the sentence with です to make it more polite. You’ll learn how to drop the です in Season 5, when you start learning casual Japanese, but for now, always remember to add the です on there.
Okay, that shouldn’t have been too hard. It’s just a combination of what you learned with にくい and やすい, plus a refresher on い adjective conjugation. Let’s start using these!