辛い (karai) conjugation
hot and spicy; salty
辛い (からい, karai) 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 | 辛い karai | 辛いです karaidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 辛くない karakunai | 辛くないです karakunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 辛かった karakatta | 辛かったです karakattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 辛くなかった karakunakatta | 辛くなかったです karakunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 辛くて karakute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 辛く karaku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 辛い〜 karai〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 辛ければ karakereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 辛かったら karakattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 辛くなる karakunaru | 辛くなります karakunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 辛すぎる karasugiru | 辛すぎます karasugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 辛そう karasou | 辛そうです karasoudesu | “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.