長い (nagai) conjugation
long, lengthy
長い (ながい, nagai) 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 | 長い nagai | 長いです nagaidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 長くない nagakunai | 長くないです nagakunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 長かった nagakatta | 長かったです nagakattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 長くなかった nagakunakatta | 長くなかったです nagakunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 長くて nagakute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 長く nagaku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 長い〜 nagai〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 長ければ nagakereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 長かったら nagakattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 長くなる nagakunaru | 長くなります nagakunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 長すぎる nagasugiru | 長すぎます nagasugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 長そう nagasou | 長そうです nagasoudesu | “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.