苦い (nigai) conjugation
bitter
苦い (にがい, nigai) 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 | 苦い nigai | 苦いです nigaidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 苦くない nigakunai | 苦くないです nigakunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 苦かった nigakatta | 苦かったです nigakattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 苦くなかった nigakunakatta | 苦くなかったです nigakunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 苦くて nigakute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 苦く nigaku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 苦い〜 nigai〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 苦ければ nigakereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 苦かったら nigakattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 苦くなる nigakunaru | 苦くなります nigakunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 苦すぎる nigasugiru | 苦すぎます nigasugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 苦そう nigasou | 苦そうです nigasoudesu | “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.