ありがたい (arigatai) conjugation
grateful, thankful, appreciated
ありがたい (ありがたい, arigatai) 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.
Written 有難い in kanji, but usually written in kana alone.
Conjugation table
| Form | Plain (casual) | Polite (~です) | When you use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary / plain | ありがたい arigatai | ありがたいです arigataidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | ありがたくない arigatakunai | ありがたくないです arigatakunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | ありがたかった arigatakatta | ありがたかったです arigatakattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | ありがたくなかった arigatakunakatta | ありがたくなかったです arigatakunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | ありがたくて arigatakute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | ありがたく arigataku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | ありがたい〜 arigatai〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | ありがたければ arigatakereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | ありがたかったら arigatakattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | ありがたくなる arigatakunaru | ありがたくなります arigatakunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | ありがたすぎる arigatasugiru | ありがたすぎます arigatasugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | ありがたそう arigatasou | ありがたそうです arigatasoudesu | “looks / seems ~” from appearance. |
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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.