乏しい (toboshii) conjugation
meager, scarce, hard up, poor
乏しい (とぼしい, toboshii) 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 | 乏しい toboshii | 乏しいです toboshiidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 乏しくない toboshikunai | 乏しくないです toboshikunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 乏しかった toboshikatta | 乏しかったです toboshikattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 乏しくなかった toboshikunakatta | 乏しくなかったです toboshikunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 乏しくて toboshikute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 乏しく toboshiku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 乏しい〜 toboshii〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 乏しければ toboshikereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 乏しかったら toboshikattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 乏しくなる toboshikunaru | 乏しくなります toboshikunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 乏しすぎる toboshisugiru | 乏しすぎます toboshisugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 乏しそう toboshisou | 乏しそうです toboshisoudesu | “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.