暗い (kurai) conjugation
dark, gloomy
暗い (くらい, kurai) 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 | 暗い kurai | 暗いです kuraidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 暗くない kurakunai | 暗くないです kurakunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 暗かった kurakatta | 暗かったです kurakattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 暗くなかった kurakunakatta | 暗くなかったです kurakunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 暗くて kurakute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 暗く kuraku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 暗い〜 kurai〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 暗ければ kurakereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 暗かったら kurakattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 暗くなる kurakunaru | 暗くなります kurakunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 暗すぎる kurasugiru | 暗すぎます kurasugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 暗そう kurasou | 暗そうです kurasoudesu | “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.