い Adjective Vocabulary (And How To Identify Them)
“There are no ordinary moments.” - Dan Millman
Before you take a look at the vocab, let’s learn how to identify い adjectives. There’s a hint in their name (like な adjectives), so this should be pretty simple. Let’s take a look at a sampling of い adjectives. See if you can figure out why they’re called that.
おいしい (tasty)
いそがしい (busy)
あたらしい (new)
ちかい (near)
おおきい (big)
If you guessed “they all have an い on the end” then you are right! Now, the tricky part is that there are some な adjectives that also have an い on the end (きらい and きれい, to name a few). Unfortunately, you’ll have to memorize these as exceptions if you don’t want to be confused by them. Just make sure you know your な adjective vocab list, and you should do just fine.
So, it’s time for you to start learning the い adjective list. I’d recommend learning around 30% of these if you can, before moving on, since it’ll help you focus on your grammar (rather than trying to remember words). Then, import the i-adj deck to your TextFugu Vocab deck on Anki.
い Adjectives List on Anki
There’s a lot more い adjectives than there were な adjectives, but all of these will be extremely useful to you. They are very common words, and words you’ll be able to use right away or in the near future.
| Word | かな | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 不味い | まずい | Bad Tasting |
| 悪い | わるい | Bad |
| 大きい | おおきい | Big / Large |
| つまらない | つまらない | Boring |
| 明るい | あかるい | Bright / Cheerful |
| 忙しい | いそがしい | Busy |
| 安い | やすい | Cheap |
| 近い | ちかい | Close / Near |
| 冷たい | つめたい | Cold (to the touch) |
| 寒い | さむい | Cold |
| 涼しい | すずしい | Cool (temp) |
| 可愛い | かわいい | Cute |
| 危ない | あぶない | Dangerous |
| 暗い | くらい | Dark |
| 難しい | むずかしい | Difficult |
| 恥ずかしい | はずかしい | Embarrassing |
| 遠い | とおい | Far Away |
| 早い | はやい | Fast / Quick |
| 楽しい | たのしい | Fun |
| いい | いい | Good |
| 嬉しい | うれしい | Happy |
| 重い | おもい | Heavy |
| 熱い | あつい | Hot |
| 面白い | おもしろい | Interesting |
| 軽い | かるい | Light (weight) |
| 長い | ながい | Long |
| 低い | ひくい | Low |
| 新しい | あたらしい | New |
| 優しい | やさしい | Nice |
| うるさい | うるさい | Noisy |
| 古い | ふるい | Old |
| 悲しい | かなしい | Sad |
| 怖い | こわい | Scary |
| 短い | みじかい | Short |
| 遅い | おそい | Slow |
| 小さい | ちいさい | Small |
| 厳しい | きびしい | Strict |
| 強い | つよい | Strong |
| 高い | たかい | Tall / Expensive |
| 美味しい | おいしい | Tasty / Good Tasting |
| 温かい | あたたかい | Warm |
| 弱い | よわい | Weak |
| 若い | わかい | Young |
Along with this I’ve made a PDF reference sheet you can use. Make sure you don’t let it be your crutch, though. Learn the words, and only use this sheet to review / practice your words, if possible!
After going through part of these words, move on to the next page, where you’ll start seeing how い adjectives are used (as well as how they’re similar / different from the な adjectives you learned earlier).