黒い (kuroi) conjugation
black; dark
黒い (くろい, kuroi) 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 | 黒い kuroi | 黒いです kuroidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 黒くない kurokunai | 黒くないです kurokunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 黒かった kurokatta | 黒かったです kurokattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 黒くなかった kurokunakatta | 黒くなかったです kurokunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 黒くて kurokute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 黒く kuroku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 黒い〜 kuroi〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 黒ければ kurokereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 黒かったら kurokattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 黒くなる kurokunaru | 黒くなります kurokunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 黒すぎる kurosugiru | 黒すぎます kurosugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 黒そう kurosou | 黒そうです kurosoudesu | “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.