How do you pronounce the negative form of -i adjectives in Japanese?

Question

For example, takai desu becomes takakunai desu, so the -i syllable at the end is omitted entirely?

Phonetically it would be taka-kunai desu?

Phonetically for muzukashi desu it would be muzukashi-kunai desu or muzukash-kunai desu?

Phonetically for atsui desu it would be atsu-kunai desu?

Thanks in advance.

Empire539 · Accepted Answer

For i-adjectives, yes, you drop the final 'i' sound and add "kunai"

takai → takakunai (there's no 'i' sound in between 'ka' and 'ku')
muzukashii → muzukashikunai (you were missing the final 'i' in your spelling); if you speak quickly, you may sometimes hear something like "muzukashkunai", but "muzukashikunai" is the proper word (since there isn't an atomic "sh" sound in Japanese)
atsui → atsukunai

The rule is the same for all i-adjectives (except for words that are based on the word "ii"). Words based on "ii" are exceptions, since "ii" originally derives from "yoi"
ii → yoi → yokunai
kakkoii → kakkoyokunai

kawaii → kawaikunai ("kawaii" can be thought of as "kawai" + "i", not "kawa" + "ii"; it's not an "ii" word, so it conjugates like every other i-adjective)

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How do you pronounce the negative form of -i adjectives in Japanese?

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