早い (hayai) conjugation
early
早い (はやい, hayai) 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 | 早い hayai | 早いです hayaidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 早くない hayakunai | 早くないです hayakunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 早かった hayakatta | 早かったです hayakattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 早くなかった hayakunakatta | 早くなかったです hayakunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 早くて hayakute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 早く hayaku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 早い〜 hayai〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 早ければ hayakereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 早かったら hayakattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 早くなる hayakunaru | 早くなります hayakunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 早すぎる hayasugiru | 早すぎます hayasugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 早そう hayasou | 早そうです hayasoudesu | “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.