まずい

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. このスープはまずいです。▶ —
   This soup tastes bad.
2. まずい!忘れていた!▶ —
   Oh no, I forgot!

Collocations

Mnemonic

まずい mazui — i-adjective, antonym of 美味しい (oishii). Beyond "bad-tasting", it covers (1) "this situation has gone bad" (idiomatic, "uh oh"), (2) "unskilled / clumsy" (handwriting, painting, skill). One adjective bridges three Korean lexemes (taste, trouble, clumsy). Companion slang やばい (yabai) originally meant "dangerous" but expanded to all-purpose evaluation (awesome, delicious, terrible, surprising). まずい stays negative; やばい floats between positive and negative — register accuracy decides naturalness.

Quick check

1. Meaning of まずい in "まずい!忘れていた!"?

   • "Uh oh, this is bad" — situation has gone wrong
   • Tastes bad (food)
   • Unskilled (ability)
   • Not pretty