赤い (akai) conjugation
red
赤い (あかい, akai) is an i-adjective. I-adjectives carry their own tense: drop the final い and the endings attach straight to the stem. No だ, no です needed to make a complete sentence.
Conjugation table
| Form | Plain (casual) | Polite (~です) | When you use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary / plain | 赤い akai | 赤いです akaidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 赤くない akakunai | 赤くないです akakunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 赤かった akakatta | 赤かったです akakattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 赤くなかった akakunakatta | 赤くなかったです akakunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 赤くて akakute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 赤く akaku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 赤い〜 akai〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 赤ければ akakereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 赤かったら akakattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 赤くなる akakunaru | 赤くなります akakunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 赤すぎる akasugiru | 赤すぎます akasugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 赤そう akasou | 赤そうです akasoudesu | “looks / seems ~” from appearance. |
🔊 Tap any Japanese word to hear it spoken.
Why it conjugates this way
I-adjectives carry their own tense: drop the final い and the endings attach straight to the stem. No だ, no です needed to make a complete sentence.
See the full rules in the adjective conjugation guide.