形容詞 – Top 10 Japanese Adjectives
These top 10 Japanese adjectives were taken from the BCCWJ Corpus (Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese).
A corpus is a collection of words used across several texts in frequency order. Though you will need more than 10 adjectives to speak Japanese, but these 10 are the most common.
INDEX
1. ない (nai) – Not, No, None
Nai is an adjective meaning not, no, none, and so on. It is also used to make verbs and other adjectives negative. So, taberu (食べる, to eat) would be tabenai (食べない, to not eat).
することがない
(I) don’t have anything to do
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/
何もわからない
(I) don’t know anything
靴がない
(I) don’t have (any/my) shoes
2. よい・いい (yoi, ii) – Good, Fine, Well, Right
Yoi means good, fine, well or even right. It is also pronounced as ii which is also more common.
今日天気がいいですね
Today the weather is nice
彼はいい友達だ
He is a good friend
いい事を聞いた
(I) heard something good
3. 多い (ooi) – Many, Much, Several
Ooi means many, much, several, etc. You would say it in much the same way as in English.
人が多い場所
A place with several people
多くの人が好きな食べ物
Food that many people like
毛が多い猫
Hairy cat (a cat with lots of hair)
4. 高い (takai) – Tall, High, Expensive
When something is tall or high you can say takai. This can mean physically like a tree, or it can mean high like something is high in cost, or costly.
この木は高い
This is a tall tree
高いものを買いたくない
(I) don’t want to buy something expensive
高い声で歌う
to sing with a high voice
5. 大きい (ookii) – Big
Ookii means big. Again, this is not too much different from the word in English.
大きい声で話す
to talk with a load voice
大きい犬
big dog
AはBより大きい
A is bigger than B
6. やすい (yasui) – Cheap, Easy to do
Yasui means cheap when used just like it is as an adjective. It can also be used as a suffix to verbs. When it is a suffix to verbs then it means easy.
安い靴を買ってきた
(I) bought cheap shoes
使いやすいパソコン
easy to use compuer
このイチゴは美味しいし、安い
This strawberry is tasty and cheap
7. 強い (tsuyoi) – Strong
Tsuyoi means strong. You can use it for someone or something that is physically strong, or other situations such as a strong opponent in a game.
風に強い建物
a building strong to the wind
強い意志
strong will
壁が強い
The wall is strong
8. 少ない (sukunai) – a Few
Sukunai is the opposite of ooi and means few.
人が少なく見える
it looks like there are few people
カロリーが少ない
(this has) few calories
少ない時間で頑張る
do (my) best with little time
9. 悪い (warui) – Bad
Warui has the opposite meaning from yoi. So, a direct translation would be bad.
健康に悪い
bad for health
目が悪い
(my) eyes are bad (I can’t see well)
悪い天気
Bad weather
10. 長い (nagai) – Long
Finally, nagai means long in Japanese.
象は鼻が長い
Elephants have long noses
長い間トムと会っていない
(I) have not met Tom for a long time
髪の毛が長い
(my) hair is long
Check out more of my posts if you want to learn more Japanese Vocabulary.
If you are interested in learning Japanese I have reviewed what I consider the best resource for Japanese Grammar below:
