90 Japanese Adjectives and Descriptive Words for Conversation

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If you’ve already learned the basics of Japanese, then you’re ready to make your sentences more colourful with these Japanese adjectives and descriptive words.

As a beginner, it can be frustrating to rely on basic “noun + は + noun + です” or “noun + を + verb” patterns: “That is a dog” (それは犬です, sore wa inu desu) or “I study Japanese” (日本語を勉強します, nihongo o benkyou shimasu). Adjectives let you say much more, from “It’s a huge, cute, fluffy dog!” to describing something as beautiful, tasty or amazing.

Once you start learning Japanese adjectives, you can suddenly express a much wider range of thoughts and feelings. It feels really satisfying!

You’ll need to learn a bit of Japanese grammar with these adjectives, but I’ve saved that for the end. For now, notice whether a word is an い-adjective or a な-adjective: these are the two main patterns learners use. The ending alone is not a perfect test; for example, きれい (kirei, “pretty” or “clean”) is a な-adjective even though it ends in い. This list also includes a few useful colour nouns, quantity words and descriptive verb forms, all labelled in the notes below.

Here’s a quick study tip: learn rough opposites together when you can. They’re often easier to remember as pairs, but a negative form is not always an exact synonym for the opposite. If you forget まずい (mazui, “bad-tasting”), for example, you could say おいしくない (oishikunai, “not delicious”). The second description is milder, but it can still help you get your meaning across.

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Japanese Adjectives for Positive Feelings

There are many common adjectives for expressing positive feelings in Japanese, but these will give you a lot of mileage. One of the most common, すごい (sugoi, “amazing” or “wow”), is often used on its own as a response. You may also hear the rougher すげー (sugee, “awesome” or “wow”). It is very casual and often masculine-coded, so save it for informal contexts and listen to how people around you use it.

• Good: 良い (yoi)
• Amazing: すごい (sugoi)
• Cool: かっこいい (kakkoii)
• Correct: 正しい (tadashii)
• Simple: 簡単な (kantan na)
• Kind: 優しい (yasashii)
• Happy: 嬉しい (ureshii)
• Energetic: 元気な (genki na)
• Enjoyable: 楽しい (tanoshii)
• Wonderful: 素晴らしい (subarashii)

素晴らしい (subarashii) means “wonderful” or “splendid”, rather than serving as a general translation of “beautiful”. For the appearance of a person or thing, きれい (kirei, “pretty” or “beautiful”) is often more natural in everyday speech. 美しい (utsukushii, “beautiful”) is also correct, but it can sound more formal or literary in conversation.

Japanese Adjectives for Negative Feelings

Here is the list of rough opposites to the words above. Words like ひどい and ダサい are quite strong and insulting when used to describe people. But ひどい is often used to describe a terrible, unlucky or unfortunate situation, much as すごい can react to an impressive one. Similarly, you can use 最低 (saitei) to call something or someone “the worst”.

• Bad: 悪い (warui)
• Horrible: ひどい (hidoi)
• Lame: ダサい (dasai)
• Wrong, incorrect: 間違った (machigatta)
• Difficult: 難しい (muzukashii)
• Rude: 失礼な (shitsurei na)
• Sad: 悲しい (kanashii)
• Bothersome: めんどい (mendoi)
• Boring: つまらない (tsumaranai)
• Unpleasant: 嫌な (iya na)

間違った (machigatta, “wrong”) does not end in い or な because it is the past form of the verb 間違う (machigau, “to be mistaken” or “to make a mistake”), used descriptively before a noun as in 間違った答え (machigatta kotae, “a wrong answer”). めんどい (mendoi, “bothersome”) is an informal shortened form related to めんどう／めんどうくさい (mendou / mendoukusai, “troublesome”), so it suits casual speech rather than formal situations.

Japanese Adjectives for Size and Weight

Now let’s talk about describing what something looks like! For instance, the “big, fluffy dog” we mentioned earlier is 大きくてふわふわの犬 (ookikute fuwafuwa no inu, “a big, fluffy dog”). Texture words such as ふわふわ (fuwafuwa, “fluffy”) are often forms of Japanese onomatopoeia. That’s outside our scope here, but onomatopoeia is a perfect next step to learn.

• Big: 大きい (ookii)
• Small: 小さい (chiisai)
• Tall: 背が高い (se ga takai)
• Short: 背が低い (se ga hikui)
• Wide: 広い (hiroi)
• Narrow: 狭い (semai)
• Thick: 太い (futoi)
• Thin: 細い (hosoi)
• Heavy: 重い (omoi)
• Lightweight: 軽い (karui)

Be careful with 太い (futoi, “thick”): it can sound blunt when applied to a person’s body. 背 (se, “stature” or “height”) gives you the natural expressions 背が高い (se ga takai, “tall”) and 背が低い (se ga hikui, “short”).

Japanese Adjectives for Colour

Japanese colour words do not all behave alike. Some are い-adjectives, such as 赤い and 青い, while colour nouns such as ピンク and 緑 commonly take の before a noun: ピンクの花 (pinku no hana, “a pink flower”).

Some colour words also have related noun forms, such as 赤 (aka, “red”) alongside 赤い (akai, “red”). Treat these as vocabulary pairs rather than applying a blanket “drop い” rule to every colour.

• Red: 赤い (akai)
• Orange: オレンジ (orenji; use オレンジの before a noun)
• Yellow: 黄色い (kiiroi; the noun 黄色, kiiro, can take の)
• Green: 緑 (midori; use 緑の before a noun)
• Blue: 青い (aoi)
• Purple: 紫 (murasaki; use 紫の before a noun)
• Pink: ピンク (pinku; use ピンクの before a noun)
• Black: 黒い (kuroi)
• White: 白い (shiroi)
• Grey: 灰色 (haiiro; use 灰色の before a noun)
• Brown: 茶色 (chairo; use 茶色の before a noun)

A couple of kanji notes will help you remember “grey” and “brown”. 灰 (hai) means “ash”, 茶 (cha) means “tea”, and 色 (iro) means “colour”. So 灰色 (haiiro) and 茶色 (chairo) are literally “ash colour” and “tea colour”.

Japanese Adjectives for Distance and Speed

You can use these adjectives to express length, depth, distance and speed. Note that 短い is not normally used to call someone short; use it for objects or hair instead: 髪が短いです (kami ga mijikai desu, “My hair is short”).

• Long: 長い (nagai)
• Short: 短い (mijikai)
• Far: 遠い (tooi)
• Near: 近い (chikai)
• Deep: 深い (fukai)
• Shallow: 浅い (asai)
• High: 高い (takai)
• Low: 低い (hikui)
• Fast: 速い (hayai)
• Slow: 遅い (osoi)

遅い can also mean “late”, as in arriving late for an appointment or describing a late hour: 遅い時間 (osoi jikan, “a late time” or “a late hour”).

Japanese Quantity Words and Intensifiers

These words are extremely useful. They let you express quantity without specifying a number, which helps if you forget your Japanese numbers or the counters that go with them.

• Many: 多い (ooi)
• Few, not many: 少ない (sukunai)
• A little: 少し (sukoshi)
• A lot: たくさん (takusan)
• Enough: 十分な (juubun na)
• Lacking, not enough: 足りない (tarinai)

These six forms do not all follow one adjective pattern. 多い (ooi, “many”) and 少ない (sukunai, “few” or “not many”) are い-adjectives, but they are most natural in patterns such as 本が多い／少ない (hon ga ooi / sukunai, “there are many / few books”) rather than directly before a countable noun. 少し (sukoshi, “a little”) usually works adverbially or as a noun. たくさん (takusan, “a lot”) is a quantity word: use たくさんの本 (takusan no hon, “many books”) or たくさん食べる (takusan taberu, “eat a lot”). 十分 (juubun, “enough”) can work adverbially and takes な before a noun. 足りない (tarinai, “is not enough”) is the negative form of the verb 足りる (tariru, “to be enough”), not an い-adjective.

Japanese Adjectives for Characteristics

You’ll use and hear these adjectives all the time, so make sure to memorise them. Two extremely common casual words not listed below are やばい (yabai) and うまい (umai); see our guide to Japanese slang words for more context. やばい can signal something alarming, overwhelming or excellent depending on the situation. うまい can mean “skilful” and is also a casual way to say food is delicious.

• Delicious: おいしい (oishii)
• Bad-tasting: 不味い (mazui)
• Beautiful: 美しい (utsukushii)
• Ugly: 醜い (minikui)
• Expensive: 高い (takai)
• Cheap: 安い (yasui)
• Hot weather: 暑い (atsui)
• Cold weather: 寒い (samui)
• New: 新しい (atarashii)
• Old: 古い (furui)
• Fresh: 新鮮な (shinsen na)
• Rotten: 腐った (kusatta)
• Bright: 明るい (akarui)
• Dark: 暗い (kurai)
• Clean: 清潔な (seiketsu na)
• Dirty: 汚い (kitanai)
• Soft: 柔らかい (yawarakai)
• Hard (solid): 硬い (katai)
• Strong: 強い (tsuyoi)
• Weak: 弱い (yowai)
• Safe: 安全な (anzen na)
• Dangerous: 危ない (abunai)
• Wet: ぬれた (nureta)
• Dry: 乾いた (kawaita)
• Quiet: 静かな (shizuka na)
• Noisy: 騒々しい (souzoushii), うるさい (urusai)
• Busy: 忙しい (isogashii)
• Free (having spare time): 暇な (hima na)
• Cute: 可愛い (kawaii)
• Pretty, clean: きれいな (kirei na)
• Scary: 怖い (kowai)
• Round: 丸い (marui)
• Sharp: 鋭い (surudoi)

暑い and 寒い describe the weather or the surrounding temperature; for a hot object, use 熱い (atsui, “hot to the touch”), and for something cold to the touch, use 冷たい (tsumetai, “cold to the touch”). 腐った, ぬれた and 乾いた are past verb forms used descriptively, so they do not follow the regular い-adjective pattern.

高い appears here again because it can mean both “expensive” and “tall” or “high”. The two words for “noisy” also differ slightly. 騒々しい (souzoushii) describes a place or situation with a lot of disruptive noise and can also describe unsettled circumstances. うるさい (urusai) often conveys that a sound or person is annoyingly loud; depending on context, it can also mean “fussy” or “persistent”.

How to Use Japanese Adjectives: A Quick Grammar Lesson

Now, let’s learn how to use these adjectives in sentences. The two main patterns are い-adjectives and な-adjectives (often called adjectival nouns). Unlike English, Japanese marks tense and negation on these patterns. If you already know basic Japanese verb conjugation, the logic will feel familiar.

い-adjectives in Japanese

い-adjectives go directly before a noun, or can end a sentence and change for tense and negation.

For example, put 汚い before 靴下 to make 汚い靴下 (kitanai kutsushita, “dirty socks”).

To say “The socks are dirty,” use 靴下が汚いです (kutsushita ga kitanai desu). Here, です makes the sentence polite; the adjective itself carries the tense and negative forms below.

For regular い-adjectives, make the past tense by dropping い and adding かった. So 汚い (kitanai, “dirty”) becomes 汚かった (kitanakatta, “was dirty”). For the negative and past negative, drop the final い and add くない or くなかった: 汚くない (kitanakunai, “not dirty”) and 汚くなかった (kitanakunakatta, “was not dirty”). In more formal situations, you can use ありません instead of ない: 汚くありません (kitanaku arimasen, “is not dirty”) and 汚くありませんでした (kitanaku arimasen deshita, “was not dirty”).

One common exception is いい／よい (ii / yoi, “good”). Its usual forms include よかった (yokatta, “was good”), よくない (yokunai, “not good”) and よくなかった (yokunakatta, “was not good”). The same よ- stem appears in compounds ending in いい, such as かっこいい (kakkoii, “cool”): かっこよかった (kakkoyokatta, “was cool”) and かっこよくない (kakkoyokunai, “not cool”).

This pattern comes in handy if you forget an opposite word. If you forget the word for “clean”, for example, you can say 汚くないです (kitanakunai desu, “It’s not dirty”).

To join two い-adjectives, drop the final い and add くて to the first adjective only. If the dirty socks are also stinky (臭い, kusai), 汚い changes to 汚くて. The result is 汚くて臭い靴下 (kitanakute kusai kutsushita, “dirty, stinky socks”).

な-adjectives in Japanese

な-adjectives take な directly before a noun. At the end of a sentence, tense and negation are marked with the copula. Using 元気 (genki, “energetic”) as an example, “an energetic child” is 元気な子供 (genki na kodomo), while “The child is energetic” is 子供は元気です (kodomo wa genki desu).

The polite past, negative and past-negative forms are 子供は元気でした (kodomo wa genki deshita, “The child was energetic”), 子供は元気ではありません (kodomo wa genki dewa arimasen, “The child is not energetic”) and 子供は元気ではありませんでした (kodomo wa genki dewa arimasen deshita, “The child was not energetic”). The casual equivalents are 元気だ (genki da, “is energetic”), 元気だった (genki datta, “was energetic”), 元気じゃない (genki janai, “is not energetic”) and 元気じゃなかった (genki janakatta, “was not energetic”).

To combine two な-adjectives, add で to connect them. If the child is energetic and quiet, you could say 子供は元気で静かです (kodomo wa genki de shizuka desu, “The child is energetic and quiet”).

Colour Your Sentences With Japanese Adjectives

Now you know the main patterns behind Japanese adjectives and the descriptive words on this list. Practise them with your Japanese language exchange partner so you get the hang of using them in real sentences.

And if you’re looking to learn more Japanese, JapanesePod101 is a great place to start. You can learn more vocabulary and grammar in context while listening on the go.

What other adjectives would you add to the list? Share them in the comments!