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JLPT N3 · い-adjective

いけない (ikenai)

いけない is a Japanese い-adjective meaning “bad; wrong”. It appears in JLPT N3 vocabulary lists and is marked as a common word in JMdict.

Reading
いけない
Romaji
ikenai
Word class
い-adjective
Level
JLPT N3 (unofficial)

Meaning

  1. bad; wrong; naughty · expression, い-adjective
  2. must not (do, be); should not; ought not to · expression, い-adjective · after the -te form of a verb or adjective
  3. useless; no good; bad · expression, い-adjective
  4. hopeless; beyond hope · expression, い-adjective
  5. unfortunate; a shame; a pity · expression, い-adjective · used to express sympathy

Example sentences

このフロッピーをフォーマットしてはいけません。
You mustn't format this floppy disk.
Tatoeba #223222
彼本人は好人物なんだが、その取り巻きがどうもいけないね。
I really like him, but not his circle of friends.
Tatoeba #85982
「風邪気味です」「それはいけませんね」
"I've a touch of a cold." "That's too bad."
Tatoeba #236157

Sentences from the Tatoeba project, linked to this word in JMdict.

Conjugation of いけない

い-adjective. Plain and polite forms below; try any other word in the Japanese verb conjugator.

FormJapaneseReading
Presentいけないいけない ikenai
Negativeいけなくないいけなくない ikenakunai
Pastいけなかったいけなかった ikenakatta
Negative pastいけなくなかったいけなくなかった ikenakunakatta
Te-formいけなくていけなくて ikenakute
Adverb (~ku)いけなくいけなく ikenaku
Conditional (~ba)いけなければいけなければ ikenakereba

Source: JMdict entry 1000730 (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0). Level: unofficial JLPT list – how levels are assigned.