JLPT N5 · い-adjective

早い (hayai)

早い (はやい, hayai) is a Japanese い-adjective meaning “fast; quick”. It appears in JLPT N5 vocabulary lists and is marked as a common word in JMdict.

Reading
はやい
Romaji
hayai
Word class
い-adjective
Level
JLPT N5 (unofficial)

Meaning

  1. fast; quick; rapid; swift; speedy · い-adjective · esp. 速い
  2. early; soon; earlier than usual · い-adjective
  3. premature; too soon; too early · い-adjective
  4. easy; simple; quick; fast · い-adjective · esp. 早い
  5. as soon as ...; the moment ...; the instant ... · い-adjective · as ...するが早いか or ...するより早く

Example sentences

あれは世界で最も速い電車です。
That is the fastest train in the world.
子供は成長が早い。
Children grow very quickly.
今年は春の訪れが早かった。
Spring has come early this year.

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

Conjugation of 早い

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

FormJapaneseReading
Present早いはやい hayai
Negative早くないはやくない hayakunai
Past早かったはやかった hayakatta
Negative past早くなかったはやくなかった hayakunakatta
Te-form早くてはやくて hayakute
Adverb (~ku)早くはやく hayaku
Conditional (~ba)早ければはやければ hayakereba

Kanji in 早い

Related words

Other vocabulary sharing a kanji with 早い.

Source: JMdict entry 1404975 (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0). Level: unofficial JLPT list – how levels are assigned.