How do you say "shallow" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "shallow" is 浅い (Asai). It is a adjective pronounced "ah-sah-ee".

Listen to the pronunciation:

Pronunciation

浅い is written in kanji and hiragana. Romanised as Asai, it sounds roughly like "ah-sah-ee" to an English ear.

Example sentence

この池はとても浅いです。

Kono ike wa totemo asai desu.

This pond is very shallow.

Usage notes

Asai (浅い) is an i-adjective meaning shallow. It is used for water depth as well as abstract shallowness, such as asai chishiki (shallow knowledge) or asai nemuri (light sleep). Its opposite is fukai (deep).

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Questions about 浅い

How do you pronounce 浅い?

浅い is romanised as Asai. Say it roughly like "ah-sah-ee" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 浅い formal or casual?

浅い is an i-adjective. The form shown is the plain form, which works in casual speech. To make it polite, add desu at the end of the sentence. The word itself does not change.

How is 浅い written in Japanese?

浅い is written using kanji and hiragana. Kanji characters carry the core meaning; any hiragana or katakana that follow show grammatical endings.

This word is part of the vocabulary taught in the Japanese language learning game Noun Town, where words are introduced through play rather than memorisation.