長い（ながい、nagai）
- long

The Japanese adjective 長い means "long" or "tall" in English. It describes something that has a considerable distance from end to end, or that extends a great distance upwards from the base. It can also describe a long duration of time. The meaning of 長い changes depending on the context.

⚫︎長い髪 Translation: Long hair ⚫︎長い道 Translation: Long road ⚫︎長い時間 Translation: A long time ⚫︎長い映画 Translation: A long movie

長い is used to describe the length of objects, distances, or time. It is used as an i-adjective, meaning it conjugates like other i-adjectives. For example: ⚫︎ 長いです: is long (polite form) ⚫︎ 長かった: was long (past tense) ⚫︎ 長く: adverbial form (for example, to say "for a long time") You can use it to describe physical objects, such as a road or a river. It can also describe time, such as a long meeting or a long wait.

The word 長い is typically written in kanji as 長い. The hiragana reading is ながい. There are no other common ways to write this word. The okurigana is い.

Some synonyms for 長い include: ⚫︎ 背が高い (せがたかい) - tall (for people) ⚫︎ 遠い (とおい) - far away (for distance) ⚫︎ 久しい (ひさしい) - long (for time, but in the sense of "a long time since something happened")

The antonym of 長い is 短い (みじかい), which means "short".

この川は長いです。 ・Translation: This river is long. ・Explanation: This sentence uses 長い to describe the length of the river.

夏休みはとても長かった。 ・Translation: The summer vacation was very long. ・Explanation: This sentence uses the past tense of 長い to describe the duration of the summer vacation.

The etymology of 長い is thought to derive from the Old Japanese word ながし which meant "long". Over time, it evolved into the modern Japanese word 長い.