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JLPT N5 · な-adjective

大変 (taihen)

大変 (たいへん, taihen) is a Japanese な-adjective meaning “very; greatly”. It appears in JLPT N5 vocabulary lists and is marked as a common word in JMdict.

Reading
たいへん
Romaji
taihen
Word class
な-adjective
Level
JLPT N5 (unofficial)

Meaning

  1. very; greatly; terribly; awfully · adverb
  2. immense; enormous; great · な-adjective, noun
  3. serious; grave; dreadful; terrible · な-adjective, noun
  4. difficult; hard; challenging · な-adjective, noun
  5. major incident; disaster · noun · archaic

Example sentences

１日中歩き回って大変疲れた。
I am dead tired from walking around all day.
Tatoeba #235685
あえて言いますが、もし我々がそんなことをすれば大変な誤りを犯すことになると私は思います。
At the risk of sticking my neck out, I think that if we do that, we're making a big, big mistake.
Tatoeba #234527
もし期限切れになったら、大変なことになるよ。
There will be hell to pay if I don't make this deadline.
Tatoeba #193739

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

Conjugation of 大変

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

FormJapaneseReading
Present (plain)大変だたいへんだ taihenda
Present (polite)大変ですたいへんです taihendesu
Negative大変じゃないたいへんじゃない taihenjanai
Past大変だったたいへんだった taihendatta
Negative past大変じゃなかったたいへんじゃなかった taihenjanakatta
Te-form大変でたいへんで taihende
Before a noun大変なたいへんな taihenna
Adverb (~ni)大変にたいへんに taihenni

Kanji in 大変

大
large, bigダイ・タイ・おお-・おお.きい · 3 strokes
変
unusual, change, strangeヘン・か.わる・か.わり · 9 strokes

Related words

Other vocabulary sharing a kanji with 大変.

大勢おおぜいcrowd of people大人おとなadult大学だいがくuniversity大切たいせつimportant大きいおおきいbig大きなおおきなbig大使館たいしかんembassy大丈夫だいじょうぶsafe大好きだいすきliking very much大抵たいていmostly大事だいじimportant大体だいたいgenerally大分だいぶconsiderably大学生だいがくせいuniversity student

Source: JMdict entry 1415000 (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0). Level: unofficial JLPT list – how levels are assigned.