冷たい

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 冷たい水を一杯ください。▶ —
   A glass of cold water, please.
2. 彼の態度はちょっと冷たい。▶ —
   His attitude is a bit cold.

Collocations

Mnemonic

Tsumetai (冷たい) is the i-adjective "cold (to touch)." Watch the split from samui (cold weather, ambient temperature): tsumetai is object-surface temperature (water, metal, hands, food); samui is environmental cold. Tsumetai mizu (cold water, object) vs samui hi (cold day, environment). English unifies both as cold — a learner pitfall. Metaphor: tsumetai taido (cold attitude, indifference / aloofness) — human-relation metaphor. Pair adjective atsui (熱い, hot to touch, object temperature). The 熱い (atsui, object) / 暑い (atsui, environment) homophone-by-kanji split mirrors tsumetai / samui. Korean "cha-gap-da / chup-da / tteu-geop-da / deop-da" four-way split matches Japan's four-way (冷たい・寒い・熱い・暑い). English learners must absorb the four-way split for both Korean and Japanese.

Quick check

1. Split between tsumetai and samui?

   • Tsumetai = object-surface temperature / samui = environmental (weather)
   • Synonyms
   • Tense
   • Honorific vs humble