難しい (muzukashii) conjugation
difficult
難しい (むずかしい, muzukashii) 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 | 難しい muzukashii | 難しいです muzukashiidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 難しくない muzukashikunai | 難しくないです muzukashikunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 難しかった muzukashikatta | 難しかったです muzukashikattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 難しくなかった muzukashikunakatta | 難しくなかったです muzukashikunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 難しくて muzukashikute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 難しく muzukashiku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 難しい〜 muzukashii〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 難しければ muzukashikereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 難しかったら muzukashikattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 難しくなる muzukashikunaru | 難しくなります muzukashikunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 難しすぎる muzukashisugiru | 難しすぎます muzukashisugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 難しそう muzukashisou | 難しそうです muzukashisoudesu | “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.