悲しい (kanashii) conjugation
sad, sorrowful
悲しい (かなしい, kanashii) 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 | 悲しい kanashii | 悲しいです kanashiidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 悲しくない kanashikunai | 悲しくないです kanashikunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 悲しかった kanashikatta | 悲しかったです kanashikattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 悲しくなかった kanashikunakatta | 悲しくなかったです kanashikunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 悲しくて kanashikute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 悲しく kanashiku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 悲しい〜 kanashii〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 悲しければ kanashikereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 悲しかったら kanashikattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 悲しくなる kanashikunaru | 悲しくなります kanashikunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 悲しすぎる kanashisugiru | 悲しすぎます kanashisugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 悲しそう kanashisou | 悲しそうです kanashisoudesu | “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.