やばい (yabai/yabe) The Meaning of this Risky, Terrible but Cool Word in Japanese
The meaning of やばい(yabai) or やべー(yabe) in Japanese can be translated into many words such as risky, awful, dangerous, terrible, and so on. It is slang and has several diverse uses in modern Japanese.
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Yabe is short for Yabai
Yabe（やべえ 、 やべっ、やべー） is a shortened form of the Japanese word やばい（yabai). Often when speaking in slang in Japanese words with ai（あい）in them will become a long e (えー）sound. So if you want to sound less like you are speaking in slang you could say’やばい, but it is still slang.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/The origins of the word やばい are not clear. Theories say it could be from one of the words in Japanse for Dangerous. Those words being 危ない (abunai) or あやうい (Ayaui).
Dangerous or Risky Situations
If you want to say that something looks dangerous our risky you could say,
あの橋はやばそう
That bridge looks suspicious
あんなやばいやつ気を付けた方がいいよ
You should watch out for that guy
あぶない is actually a better word for dangerous. やばい often overlaps with this word though. There are a few other differences between やばい and あぶない though.
Inconvenient or Unwanted Results
In Japanese, yabe, or yabai can be used very freely whenever you want to talk about some unfortunate event or something you are worried about. So, if you wake up late and have somewhere to be you could say,
やばい！遅れてしまう
Oh no! I am going to be late!
Or let’s say you get a flat tire,
やべっ！タイヤがパンクした！どうしよう？
I got a flat, uh-oh, what should I do?
Let’s say it won’t stop raining, you could say
この雨はやばいなあ
What’s up with this rain
Here, yabai, or yabe can be translated any number of ways. Such as too much, worrisome, extreme, so on.
Yabe or Yabai also has Positive Meanings
When you want to talk about something that is positive with emotion, you can use yabe or yabai. Just like people used to say in English, ‘that’s bad man’, back in the day for something good. If you are eating some really good food you could say
やばい。これ美味しい！
Wow. This is so tasty!
Real-life Examples from Twitter
やべえ4時だ
— 冷奴えいとく (@A_to_ku) October 11, 2020
やべえ、バット買った日に折れたわ
— 正岡子規bot (@MasaokashikiBot) October 11, 2020
There are more ways to translate the meaning of やべー or yabe than what I can write here. If you want to learn more about words in Japanese that are hard to translate but used all the time check out some of my other posts. Or if you are interested in learning Japanese I have reviewed what I consider the best resource for Japanese Grammar below:
2,110 Pages, No Word Wasted – A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar, Reviewed
