古い
ふるい
hepburn furui
old (of things)
Part of speech · i-adjective
Pattern visualization
Examples
- この建物は古いです。This building is old.
- 古い友達と会いました。I met an old friend.
Collocations
古い建物古い友達 (old friend)古本 (furuhon, secondhand book)古代 (kodai, ancient era)古く (long ago, adv)
Mnemonic
古い furui — the "oldness" that settles on things and time, yet never touches a person's age. When a person grows old it is 年寄り or 老人; for a deeper bond, 年上 — vocabulary parts the road. The opposite is 新しい, the new and the worn facing each other at the ends of one axis. Shifted into the onyomi こ, 古代 and 中古 share the same single root. Kanji-reading kin: 古 reads Korean 'go' (古代), Mandarin gǔ.
Quick check
"My grandfather is old" — correct expression?