JLPT N2 · い-adjective

偉い (erai)

偉い (えらい, erai) is a Japanese い-adjective meaning “great; excellent”. It is usually written in kana. It appears in JLPT N2 vocabulary lists and is marked as a common word in JMdict.

Reading: えらい
Romaji: erai
Word class: い-adjective
Level: JLPT N2 (unofficial)

Meaning

great; excellent; admirable; commendable; laudable · い-adjective
distinguished; important; high-ranking; powerful; eminent · い-adjective
awful; terrible; serious; tremendous; great · い-adjective · usually written in kana
tiring; tough; hard · い-adjective · usually written in kana
very; extremely · adverb · usually written in kana

Example sentences

私はあの人が将来偉くなると見取った。

I discerned the potential of great things in him.

Tatoeba #161571

あの偉い坊さんを見ろよ。

Look at the big shot.

Tatoeba #231217

妻はアメリカでの新しい生活のリズムに慣れるのにえらい苦労した。

My wife had a hard time getting into the swing of our new life in America.

Tatoeba #170357

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

Conjugation of 偉い

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

Form	Japanese	Reading
Present	偉い	えらい erai
Negative	偉くない	えらくない erakunai
Past	偉かった	えらかった erakatta
Negative past	偉くなかった	えらくなかった erakunakatta
Te-form	偉くて	えらくて erakute
Adverb (~ku)	偉く	えらく eraku
Conditional (~ba)	偉ければ	えらければ erakereba

Kanji in 偉い

偉

admirable, greatness, remarkableイ・えら.い · 12 strokes

Related words

Other vocabulary sharing a kanji with 偉い.

偉大いだいgreat

Source: JMdict entry 1155780 (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0). Level: unofficial JLPT list – how levels are assigned.