小さい (chiisai) conjugation
small, little
小さい (ちいさい, chiisai) 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 | 小さい chiisai | 小さいです chiisaidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 小さくない chiisakunai | 小さくないです chiisakunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 小さかった chiisakatta | 小さかったです chiisakattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 小さくなかった chiisakunakatta | 小さくなかったです chiisakunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 小さくて chiisakute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 小さく chiisaku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 小さい〜 chiisai〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 小さければ chiisakereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 小さかったら chiisakattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 小さくなる chiisakunaru | 小さくなります chiisakunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 小さすぎる chiisasugiru | 小さすぎます chiisasugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 小さそう chiisasou | 小さそうです chiisasoudesu | “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.