How do you say "weak" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "weak" is 弱い (Yowai). It is a adjective pronounced "yoh-wah-ee".

Listen to the pronunciation:

Pronunciation

弱い is written in kanji and hiragana. Romanised as Yowai, it sounds roughly like "yoh-wah-ee" to an English ear.

Example sentence

その橋は少し弱いです。

Sono hashi wa sukoshi yowai desu.

That bridge is a little weak.

Usage notes

Yowai (弱い) is an i-adjective meaning weak. It describes physical weakness, fragility of structures, mild flavors, and weak signal strength. Its opposite is tsuyoi (strong).

Related words

Practice 弱い and hundreds more Japanese words in the game.

Buy on Steam

Questions about 弱い

How do you pronounce 弱い?

弱い is romanised as Yowai. Say it roughly like "yoh-wah-ee" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 弱い formal or casual?

弱い 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 弱い written in Japanese?

弱い 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.