眠い (nemui) conjugation
sleepy, drowsy
眠い (ねむい, nemui) 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 | 眠い nemui | 眠いです nemuidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 眠くない nemukunai | 眠くないです nemukunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 眠かった nemukatta | 眠かったです nemukattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 眠くなかった nemukunakatta | 眠くなかったです nemukunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 眠くて nemukute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 眠く nemuku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 眠い〜 nemui〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 眠ければ nemukereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 眠かったら nemukattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 眠くなる nemukunaru | 眠くなります nemukunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 眠すぎる nemusugiru | 眠すぎます nemusugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 眠そう nemusou | 眠そうです nemusoudesu | “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.