いい

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word いい. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word いい, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say いい in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word いい you have here. The definition of the word いい will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofいい, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

Japanese

Etymology 1

Alternative spellings
良い
善い
好い

⟨yo2si⟩ → */jəsi//joɕi//joki/ → */joɣi//joi/ → */jiː//iː/

Ultimately a shift from 良い (yoi), classical 良し (yoshi).

Pronunciation

  • Tokyo pitch accent of inflected forms of "いい"
Source: Online Japanese Accent Dictionary
Stem forms
Continuative (連用形) よく
Terminal (終止形) いい
Attributive (連体形) いい
Key constructions
Informal negative よくない くない
Informal past よかった かった
Informal negative past よくなかった くなかった
Formal いいです いです
Conjunctive よくて くて
Conditional よければ ければ

Adjective

いい (ii-i (adverbial よく (yoku))

  1. (colloquial, informal) good
  2. (colloquial, predicative only) enough, not wanted any more
    (さけ)もういいsake wa mō iiI have had enough wine.I don’t want any more wine.
  3. (ても~, ~) Indicates permission; can, may
Usage notes
  • Most often written in this form. The kanji spelling 良い is generally reserved for more formal writing.
  • This form does not inflect — it is only used in the 終止形 (shūshikei, terminal form) and 連体形 (rentaikei, attributive form) of ii. All other grammatical forms are based on 良い (yoi). Compare the 連用形 (ren’yōkei, continuative or adverbial form) yoku or the 過去形 (kakokei, past tense) yokatta; there is no *iku or *ikatta form.
  • In ironic usages denoting “very bad” or “embarrassing”, this form is preferred to the yoi form.
Inflection

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Verb

いい (ii

  1. stem or continuative form of いう (iu)

Etymology 3

For pronunciation and definitions of いい – see the following entry.
4
(archaic) cooked grains, especially cooked rice
a surname
(This term, いい, is the hiragana spelling of the above term.)
For a list of all kanji read as いい, see Category:Japanese kanji read as いい.)

References

  1. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK Publishing, →ISBN