Sep 6, 2018

Home - Japanese vocabulary Japanese adjectives Fast and Slow in Japanese

Fast and Slow in Japanese

by Kosuke on September 06, 2018 in - Japanese vocabulary, Japanese adjectives

In this article, let's study about how to say Fast and Slow in Japanese!

In addition to that, I would like to explain about Early and Late in Japanese.

In Japanese, Early and Late are very similar to Fast and Slow!

Please choose an item from the index below!

Index:

1. Summary table

2. Fast and Early

3. Slow and Late

4. Conclusion

1. Summary table

Below is the summary of this article!

English	Japanese	Romaji	Kanji
fast	はやい	ha ya i	速い
early	はやい	ha ya i	早い
slow	おそい	o so i	遅い
late	おそい	o so i	遅い

If you still don't remember all Hiragana, please check these:

Hiragana chart >>

Dull sound >>

P-sound >>

Contracted sound >>

If you want to test your memory of Hiragana, please use this:

Hiragana quiz >>

If you don't know what Romaji is, please check this:

Romaji chart >>

They are all adjectives.

If you study Japanese, you will see many words where the last character is "い(i)", like "はやい(hayai)" and "おそい(osoi)".

In most cases, they are adjectives.

They are the words describing the status of nouns.

If you want to check other adjectives, please check these:

Hot and Cold in Japanese >>

Tall and Short in Japanese >>

Light and Dark in Japanese >>

(You don't need to care about the name "adjective" so much here.)

In this article, we will study adjectives to describe the speed of a noun.

2. Fast and Early

In English, Fast and Early are different words.

In Japanese, they are also different words.

However, they sound the same.

But their Kanji characters are different.

English	Japanese	Romaji	Kanji
fast	はやい	ha ya i	速い
early	はやい	ha ya i	早い

As you can see from the table, the Hiragana is the same.

However, only the Kanji is different!

Let's check the examples!

し

ん

か

ん

せ

ん

は

や

い

で

す

。

shi

Meaning : "The bullet train is fast."

しんかんせん

：

bullet train

If you don't know why "は(wa)" makes the sound "wa" instead of "ha", please check this:

Particle は(wa) >>

If you don't know what "です" is, please check this:

です(desu) >>

In this example, "はやい(hayai)" is used.

If we write this "はやい(hayai)" in Kanji, it is "速い".

If you are talking about the speed, the Kanji, "速い" is used.

ご

ぜ

ん

４

じ

は

や

い

で

す

。

Meaning : "4 A.M. is early."

ごぜん４じ

：

4 A.M.

If you want to know more about how to say 4 A.M. in Japanese, please check this:

Time of the day >>

If you don't know how to count number in Japanese, please check this:

Counting numbers in Japanese >>

In this example, "はやい(hayai)" is used.

If we write this "はやい(hayai)" in Kanji, it is "早い".

If you are talking about the time, the Kanji, "早い" is used.

3. Slow and Late

In English, Slow and Late are different words.

However, if we translate them into Japanese, they are the same word.

slow	おそい	o so i	遅い
late	おそい	o so i	遅い

Both Slow and Late are "おそい(osoi)" in Japanese.

In the case of "はやい(hayai)", we need to be careful when we write it in Kanji.

However, in the case of "おそい(osoi)", the Kanji is also the same.

Isn't it easy?

Let's check the examples!

じ

ん

り

き

しゃ

は

お

そ

い

で

す

。

sha

Meaning : "The rickshaw is slow."

じんりきしゃ

：

rickshaw

In this example, "おそい(osoi)" is used.

Even if you want to write it in Kanji, you can just write "遅い".

You don't need to care whether it is about speed or time.

ご

じ

は

お

そ

い

で

す

。

ju u i chi

Meaning : "11 P.M. is late."

ごご11じ

：

11 P.M.

In this example, "おそい(osoi)" is used, too.

Kanji is also the same as in the previous example.

It is "遅い".

Like above, both Slow and Late are "おそい(osoi)" in Japanese.

4. Conclusion

Please just remember the table blow!

You can remember Fast and Early are almost the same in Japanese.

Slow and Late are completely the same in Japanese.

Only when you write Fast and Early in Kanji, you should be careful!