JLPT N5 vocabulary
大変: meaning, reading and conjugation
Reading and pitch accent
たいへん0Heiban · flat
na-adjective
Meaning
- very, greatly, terribly, awfully
- immense, enormous, great (na-adjective, noun)
- serious, grave, dreadful, terrible (na-adjective, noun)
- difficult, hard, challenging (na-adjective, noun)
- major incident, disaster (noun, archaic)
Conjugation
| Form | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Basics | ||
| Plain present普通形 | 大変 | 大変 |
| Plain past過去形 | 大変 | 大変 |
| Polite presentです形 | 大変 | 大変 |
| Polite pastでした形 | 大変 | 大変 |
| Te-formて形 | 大変 | 大変 |
| Modifying | ||
| Before a noun連体形 | 大変 | —not in common use |
| As an adverb連用形 | 大変 | —not in common use |
| Conditions and moods | ||
| If (-ba)ば形 | 大変 | 大変 |
| If / when (-tara)たら形 | 大変 | 大変 |
Example sentences
彼は大変眠いらしい。
He seems to be very sleepy.
どんなに大変だろうが最後まで諦めません。
No matter how tough it is, I won't give up until the end.
祖母はいつも足が痛いだの腰が痛いだのと大変そうです。
My grandmother is always saying that her legs hurt, her lower back hurts, and so on; she seems to be having a hard time.