甘い
あまい
hepburn amai
sweet
Part of speech · i-adjective
Pattern visualization
Examples
- このケーキは甘いです。This cake is sweet.
- 考えが甘いですね。Your thinking is naive.
Collocations
甘い (amai, sweet / lenient / naive)甘えん坊 (amaenbou, spoiled child)甘やかす (amayakasu, to spoil)甘酸っぱい (amazuppai, sweet-and-sour — bittersweet emotion)甘い顔 (amai kao, indulgent expression)
Mnemonic
甘い amai — i-adjective. Core gustatory sense "sweet" extends to (1) human judgment "lenient / naive / soft", (2) emotion "bittersweet" via 甘酸っぱい (sweet-and-sour, e.g. first-love nostalgia). 考えが甘い = "your thinking is too sweet" = naively optimistic, used critically. Paired verb 甘える (amaeru, to seek indulgence) became academic vocabulary through Doi Takeo's 「甘えの構造」(The Anatomy of Dependence, 1971). One kanji bridges taste → personality → emotion → cultural critique.
Quick check
What does 考えが甘い criticize about a person?