そっけない (sokkenai) conjugation
cold, short, curt, blunt
そっけない (そっけない, sokkenai) 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.
Written 素っ気無い in kanji, but usually written in kana alone.
Conjugation table
| Form | Plain (casual) | Polite (~です) | When you use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary / plain | そっけない sokkenai | そっけないです sokkenaidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | そっけなくない sokkenakunai | そっけなくないです sokkenakunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | そっけなかった sokkenakatta | そっけなかったです sokkenakattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | そっけなくなかった sokkenakunakatta | そっけなくなかったです sokkenakunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | そっけなくて sokkenakute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | そっけなく sokkenaku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | そっけない〜 sokkenai〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | そっけなければ sokkenakereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | そっけなかったら sokkenakattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | そっけなくなる sokkenakunaru | そっけなくなります sokkenakunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | そっけなすぎる sokkenasugiru | そっけなすぎます sokkenasugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | そっけなそう sokkenasou | そっけなそうです sokkenasoudesu | “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.