JLPT N3 · い-adjective

幼い (osanai)

幼い (おさない, osanai) is a Japanese い-adjective meaning “very young; little”. It appears in JLPT N3 vocabulary lists and is marked as a common word in JMdict.

Reading: おさない
Romaji: osanai
Word class: い-adjective
Level: JLPT N3 (unofficial)

Meaning

very young; little · い-adjective
childish; immature · い-adjective

Example sentences

その幼い少年は父親の両肩の上に乗っていた。

The little boy sat on his father's shoulders.

Tatoeba #206270

彼の考えはとても幼い。

His way of thinking is very childish.

Tatoeba #117447

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

Conjugation of 幼い

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

Form	Japanese	Reading
Present	幼い	おさない osanai
Negative	幼くない	おさなくない osanakunai
Past	幼かった	おさなかった osanakatta
Negative past	幼くなかった	おさなくなかった osanakunakatta
Te-form	幼くて	おさなくて osanakute
Adverb (~ku)	幼く	おさなく osanaku
Conditional (~ba)	幼ければ	おさなければ osanakereba

Kanji in 幼い

幼

infancy, childhoodヨウ・おさな.い · 5 strokes

Related words

Other vocabulary sharing a kanji with 幼い.

幼児ようじyoung child幼稚ようちinfancy幼稚園ようちえんkindergarten (in Japan, non-compulsory education from age 3 until primary school)

Source: JMdict entry 1545110 (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0). Level: unofficial JLPT list – how levels are assigned.