強い (tsuyoi) conjugation
strong, powerful
強い (つよい, tsuyoi) 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 | 強い tsuyoi | 強いです tsuyoidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 強くない tsuyokunai | 強くないです tsuyokunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 強かった tsuyokatta | 強かったです tsuyokattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 強くなかった tsuyokunakatta | 強くなかったです tsuyokunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 強くて tsuyokute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 強く tsuyoku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 強い〜 tsuyoi〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 強ければ tsuyokereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 強かったら tsuyokattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 強くなる tsuyokunaru | 強くなります tsuyokunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 強すぎる tsuyosugiru | 強すぎます tsuyosugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 強そう tsuyosou | 強そうです tsuyosoudesu | “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.