頼もしい (tanomoshii) conjugation
reliable, promising
頼もしい (たのもしい, tanomoshii) 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 | 頼もしい tanomoshii | 頼もしいです tanomoshiidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 頼もしくない tanomoshikunai | 頼もしくないです tanomoshikunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 頼もしかった tanomoshikatta | 頼もしかったです tanomoshikattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 頼もしくなかった tanomoshikunakatta | 頼もしくなかったです tanomoshikunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 頼もしくて tanomoshikute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 頼もしく tanomoshiku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 頼もしい〜 tanomoshii〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 頼もしければ tanomoshikereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 頼もしかったら tanomoshikattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 頼もしくなる tanomoshikunaru | 頼もしくなります tanomoshikunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 頼もしすぎる tanomoshisugiru | 頼もしすぎます tanomoshisugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 頼もしそう tanomoshisou | 頼もしそうです tanomoshisoudesu | “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.