100 Most Common Japanese Adjectives You Need to Know

How do you tell your friend that their home-cooked meal is delicious? How do you compliment someone? You can’t make a conversation interesting by just nodding and smiling — you need to describe. This is why adjectives — no, Japanese adjectives — are important.

When you’ve learned the basic Japanese sentence patterns, this is the next step. In its essence, adjectives are used to describe or modify a noun. The good thing about the Japanese language is that, unlike English, you don’t have to sort adjectives into an order: does the color “red” come before “hot”; does “new” need to be put after “soft”? It doesn’t matter.

The (slightly) bad news? Japanese adjectives are categorized into two: な-adjectives and い-adjectives — and you need to be careful of them. The easiest way to separate one from the other is by checking the ending — more precisely, whether or not the word ends with an い (i).

Of course, the rule isn’t entirely accurate either. Notice that the word げんき and きれい ends with い, when in fact they are na-adjectives? What’s more important is knowing the Japanese grammar particles and modifications (to past, negative or past-negative forms) involved. It can be perplexing at first, especially if you’re new to the game.

A Quick Recap on Na and I Adjectives

Here’s where things get complicated: Japanese I-adjectives modify themselves. For example, when you say “this is not expensive” in English, you’re not actually modifying the word “expensive”. Rather, you’re modifying the “to be” verb.

However, in い-adjectives, you will need to transform the end. Take a look at the table below. We’ll be using the adjective たかい・高い, which means high (depth) or expensive.

な-adjective is more convenient and similar to that of English. Its most defining trait is the な particle put between the adjective and the noun.

田中さんは有名な歌手です。
Tanaka-san wa yuumei na kashu desu.
Tanaka-san is a famous singer

関口先生は親切な人だ。
Sekiguchi-sensei wa shinsetsu na hito da.
Sekiguchi-sensei is a kind person.

When you want to change a na-adjective’s tense — be it to negative, past or past-negative — you cannot transform the stem word itself. Instead, you alter the linking verb: です. To paint a better picture, we’ve set another table using a common N5-level Japanese, 元気・げんき, which means health or lively.

Haven’t fully learned Japanese adjectives? We’ve made a complete guide about all the essential grammar elements, rules and exceptions here (it only takes five minutes, we swear)

Before we go further into the article, note that from now, we’ll be using hiragana for example sentences. If you’re still learning them, don’t worry — take a look at our hiragana chart for the ultimate review.

Table of Content

In English, adjectives are divided into seven fundamental categories: opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin and material. In this article, however, we’ll be breaking them down based on how they’re contextually used.

Words with the particle な attached to them indicate na-adjective.

Jump to Japanese adjectives for describing:

• Sense and taste
• Numbers and quantifiers
• Dimensions and speed
• Colors, shapes and textures
• Weather and physical condition
• Social situation and condition
• Positive feelings
• Negative feelings

Japanese Adjectives For Sense and Taste

The word あつい can be easily translated as “hot”, but depending on the context, the kanji used differs. In this category, the あつい we’re referring to takes on the kanji of 熱い instead of 暑い. This is because 熱い implies the hot sensation by touch instead of the surrounding temperature.

Japanese Adjectives For Number and Quantifier

Japanese Adjectives For Dimension and Speed

Here, note that there are two meanings (and two kanji) for the word はやい: 速い and 早い. 速い is used to describe something or someone’s speed, while 早い has closer meaning to “early”.

田中さんは速いランナーです。
たなかさんははやいランナーです。
Tanaka-san is a fast runner.

去年、春の訪れが早かった。
きょねん、はるのおとずれがはやかった。
Last year, spring came early.

Japanese Adjectives For Colors, Shapes and Texture

Historically, the Japanese language doesn’t make a distinct separation between blue and green. This is why the adjective for the color blue and green is あおい・青い.

However, there is a word to describe green in modern Japanese: みどり・緑, although it is still less commonly used. To use this, instead of attaching the adjective to な, you will use の instead.

緑の地球を守りましょう。
みどりのちきゅうをまもりましょう。
Let’s protect this green earth.

Japanese Adjectives For Weather and Physical Condition

Japanese Adjectives For Social Situation and Condition

Japanese Adjectives For Positive Feelings

Japanese Adjectives For Negative Feelings

What’s Next?

A hundred adjectives might seem overwhelming at first, but with practice, you’ll be able to use them effortlessly in conversations. We like to remind our students to never treat い-adjectives and な-adjectives the same way (there’s no such thing as genkikunai!). While memorizing these Japanese adjectives, be sure to always note their classifications.

Now that you’ve learned how to describe a noun, what happens if you want to describe a verb? An adjective? Or even the whole sentence? How do you transform an adjective into an adverb in Japanese?

Make your conversation more interesting and descriptive by taking look at our guide to top basic Japanese adverbs you need to know.

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