弱い (yowai) conjugation
weak
弱い (よわい, yowai) 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 | 弱い yowai | 弱いです yowaidesu | The form you look up. Also the casual “is ~”. |
| Negative | 弱くない yowakunai | 弱くないです yowakunaidesu | “is not ~”. |
| Past | 弱かった yowakatta | 弱かったです yowakattadesu | “was ~”. |
| Past negative | 弱くなかった yowakunakatta | 弱くなかったです yowakunakattadesu | “was not ~”. |
| Te-form | 弱くて yowakute | — | Links to the next clause: “~ and …”. |
| Adverb | 弱く yowaku | — | Turns it into “~ly”, describing a verb. |
| Before a noun | 弱い〜 yowai〜 | — | How it attaches when it modifies a noun. |
| Conditional (~ば/なら) | 弱ければ yowakereba | — | “if it is ~”. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 弱かったら yowakattara | — | “if / when it is ~”. The everyday conditional. |
| Become (~なる) | 弱くなる yowakunaru | 弱くなります yowakunarimasu | “becomes ~” — the change-of-state form. |
| Too much (~すぎる) | 弱すぎる yowasugiru | 弱すぎます yowasugimasu | “too ~”. |
| Looks ~ (~そう) | 弱そう yowasou | 弱そうです yowasoudesu | “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.