い-adjectives — 高い, おいしい, and their polite present

Hot, delicious, not expensive. The adjective is the sentence.

In this lesson you will

• End a polite sentence with an い-adjective + です
• Put an い-adjective in front of a noun (高いホテル)
• Make the polite present negative with くないです

Today’s scene

How it works

An い-adjective is a full predicate. 高い already means “is expensive / is high”. Polite speech still wants です after it: 高いです. You are not stacking English “is” twice. You are putting a polite closer on a Japanese adjective that already works as a verb-like word.

Before a noun, the い stays. 高いホテル, おいしいパン, 新しい地図. Do not insert な. Do not move です between the adjective and the noun. です waits until the sentence is ready to sit down.

Negative present: drop the final い, add くない, then です. 高い → 高くないです. おいしい → おいしくないです. 寒い → 寒くないです. There is also 高くありません. Both are polite. くないです is the one you will hear more at a lunch table.

いい is the irregular one you cannot postpone. Present: いいです. Before a noun: いい天気. Negative: よくないです, never いくないです. いい comes from よい. The negative still remembers that older body.

An い-adjective is not a sticker you place on a noun the way English places “hot” on “coffee”. In Japanese, あつい is already a complete claim: the thing is hot. That is why beginners feel a double “is” when they say あついです. The です is politeness and sentence closure, not a second copula fighting the adjective. Drop です in a shop and you sound like you are talking to a roommate. Keep です this month.

Look at the shape. Most い-adjectives end with the hiragana い, and that い is grammar, not decoration. When the word sits in front of a noun, the い stays: 高いホテル, 小さい部屋, 新しい鍵. When the word sits at the end, です follows: 高いです. When you deny it, the い is the piece you remove. 高い loses い, gains くない, then です: 高くないです. If you leave the い and bolt ない onto it — 高いないです — the sentence is broken in a way Japanese ears hear immediately.

Learn a working set, not a museum. For a traveler’s mouth this week: 高い / 安い, 大きい / 小さい, 新しい / 古い, あつい / さむい, おいしい, いそがしい, たのしい, 近い / 遠い, and いい. Say them about objects you can point at. A hotel, a bun, a map, weather through a window. Abstract praise can wait. If you cannot point, you are probably inventing a sentence you will not reuse at a counter.

いい is the irregular you must own before you leave the cafe. いいです. いい天気です. いい部屋です. Negative: よくないです. The old form is よい. Japanese kept いい for the bright present and よくない for the no. Do not analogize 高い → 高くない into いい → いくない. That path does not exist.

Pronunciation is short. おいしい has four beats, not an English “oy-shee” smear. あつい is a-tsu-i, with a clean つ. さむい is not “sammy”. If you speak English, your diphthongs will try to ride the last い into a glide. Cut it. If you speak Korean, 높다 / 비싸다 map conceptually onto 高い, but the Japanese word does both “tall” and “expensive”. Context decides. A building is 高い. A price is 高い. You do not need two roots this week. If you speak Mandarin, do not park 很 in front by reflex. とても高いです exists, but 高いです is already a full polite sentence. If you speak Spanish or Portuguese, adjectives do not agree with gender or number here. 高いです does not care if the hotel is plural in your head.

Word order will betray you if you think in English. “The hotel is expensive” can become ホテルは高いです. “An expensive hotel” is 高いホテル. Do not say ホテル高いです without は unless the topic is already sitting on the table. Do not say です高い. The polite closer is last. Always last.

Questions are cheap. 高いですか。おいしいですか。あついですか。The staff in the dialogue answers with the same adjective, then the negative when price comes up: 高くないです. That is a complete shop answer. You do not need いいえ、高くありませんです. Pick one negative family and finish the sentence.

A second trap: あつい can mean hot weather or hot food. In the cafe, the coffee is あつい. Outside in August, the day is あつい. If you need “spicy”, that is a different word (からい), not this lesson’s job. Point at the cup when you mean the cup.

Do not learn past yet. おいしかったです is waiting in beginner-18. If you mix past into this week, you will smear the negative present. One tense. Present. です and くないです.

Do not borrow anime endings. うまい, やばい, 最高 without です belong to a different room. You can hear them. You do not need to wear them at a guesthouse breakfast. おいしいです will buy you the same bun and keep the temperature right.

In the dialogue, notice お待たせしました. You do not have to produce that yet. You have to receive it. Your job is the guest lines: あついですね, おいしいです, 高いですか, また来ます. ね on あついですね is a soft shared observation, not a demand that the staff agree. Use it when the heat is obvious. Do not use it to pick a fight about price.

Practice protocol: pick five objects. Say A は [adjective] です. Then deny two of them with くないです. Then put the adjective in front of the noun: [adjective][noun]です. Record once. If 高い and 安い collapse, you are not opening the first vowel. If おいしい becomes three beats, you dropped a い.

Korean speakers: 맛있다 is close in spirit to おいしい, but Japanese still wants です in this classroom. Chinese speakers: 好吃 is not a license to drop the い-ending mechanics. English speakers: “tasty” is a weak translation; おいしい is the default food praise, not a food-blog word. Spanish speakers: do not insert es between noun and adjective in Japanese word order.

Write the い. Students type romaji “takai desu” and never look at 高いです. After you type, look at the い. That letter is the hinge of the whole lesson.

When you can describe a cup, a room, and the weather without English word order, you are done for today. Tomorrow な-adjectives arrive, and 好き will try to steal を from you. Keep い-adjectives clean so you have a shelf to contrast.

A classroom hour should be boring on purpose. Write 高いです, 安いです, 大きいです, 小さいです, 新しいです, 古いです in a column. Cover the Japanese. Say the English meaning. Uncover. Then reverse: cover the English, say the Japanese. The goal is not speed. The goal is that くないです appears without you assembling it like a puzzle in the doorway of a shop.

Connecting two い-adjectives with て — 安くておいしいです — is legal Japanese. We are not drilling it as a third machine this week because て of adjectives and て of verbs will collide in your notes. If you already heard 安くて, receive it as “cheap, and…”. Produce two short sentences instead: 安いです。おいしいです。 Staff will not fail you for two sentences. They will fail to understand a smashed て you do not own.

大きい and 小さな look like cousins of な-adjectives when they become 大きな / 小さな before a noun. That prenominal pair is real. File it as a poster you walk past, not as homework. 大きい部屋です is enough. 大きな部屋です will appear on signs. You do not need both tonight.

Questions with ね and か are different temperatures. おいしいですか asks. おいしいですね shares. If you ね a price — 高いですね — you may sound like you are complaining to the person who set the price. In a cafe with a friend, 高いですね is bonding. At the register, いくらですか is cleaner than a sigh.

Hindi and Arabic speakers: there is no gender on 高い. There is no agreement with the bun. Vietnamese speakers: です still closes the line even if your first language can drop copulas in casual talk. Indonesian and Malay speakers: do not treat です as optional because the adjective already “feels complete”. In this series it is not optional.

Walk a street in your head. Point at a hotel: 高いです or 安いです. Point at a station: 近いです or 遠いです. Point at the sky: あついです or さむいです or いい天気です. That loop is the homework. Paper charts die in luggage. A pointing loop survives a jet lag morning.

If a word ends in い and you have never seen it in this lesson’s list, do not swear it is an い-adjective. きれい is waiting to embarrass you tomorrow. When in doubt, put the word in 〜です and listen. If a Japanese speaker repeats it with な before a noun, you have the other family. Curiosity is allowed. Guessing な onto おいしい is not.

You are not translating a novel. You are buying a bun and naming weather. Keep the sentences short enough to say while holding a tray.

Predicate and noun

Predicate: adjective + です
このコーヒーは高いです。 This coffee is expensive.
Before a noun: keep い, no な
高いホテル an expensive hotel
おいしいパン delicious bread

Negative present

Drop い → くないです
高くないです。 It is not expensive.
おいしくないです。 It is not delicious.
いい → よくないです。 It is not good.

Sentences you can use

Close, but not this

OK このパンはおいしいです。
NG このパンはおいしいなです。

な is for the other family. おいしい already ends in い. Do not dress it as a な-adjective.

OK 高くないです。
NG 高いないです。

The い does not stay. It becomes く, then ないです. English “not expensive” does not tell you where to cut.

Say it out loud

Next week the other family arrives: な-adjectives, and the first serious particle trap — 好き takes が, not を. Until then, describe one real object in your room with い-adjective + です every morning.

Write one sentence today