～かったです
Say how something was before
You’ll be able to put い-adjectives into the past tense to describe how things used to be.
映画は面白かったです。
eiga wa omoshirokatta desu.
What do you think this sentence means?
The movie was interesting.
Talk about how something was
Use ～かったです for the polite past of a regular い-adjective. It describes a quality that was true before now.
昨日は寒かったです。
kinou wa samukatta desu.
It was cold yesterday.
Change い to かったです
Remove the final い and add かったです.
楽しい → 楽しかったです
tanoshii → tanoshikatta desu
fun → was fun
高い → 高かったです
takai → takakatta desu
expensive → was expensive
忙しい → 忙しかったです
isogashii → isogashikatta desu
busy → was busy
The exception: いい → よかったです
いい is irregular. When its ending changes, use よ instead of い: いい becomes よかったです, not いかったです.
いい → よかったです
ii → yokatta desu
good → was good
昨日の天気はよかったです。
kinou no tenki wa yokatta desu.
Yesterday’s weather was good.
旅行はよかったです。
ryokou wa yokatta desu.
The trip was good.
い-adjective vs な-adjective past forms
い-adjectives change their ending to ～かったです. な-adjectives keep their stem and change です to でした.
い-adjective
昨日は寒かったです。
kinou wa samukatta desu.
It was cold yesterday.
寒い drops its final い and adds かったです.
な-adjective
昨日は暇でした。
kinou wa hima deshita.
I was free yesterday.
暇 keeps its stem and attaches でした.
昨日は寒かったです。
kinou wa samukatta desu.
It was cold yesterday.
漫画は面白かったです。
manga wa omoshirokatta desu.
The manga was interesting.
旅行は楽しかったです。
ryokou wa tanoshikatta desu.
The trip was fun.
14 more examples in the grammar path — free for a limited time.