Spot the Kanji for Good and Evil in Everyday Japanese

The two characters for good and evil (or bad), いand 悪respectfully, are really useful characters.

Give us the bad news first

The 悪kanji, for example, can also be added as an adjective to the front of many words to mean an unpleasant version of that.

Take, for example, which means “to talk badly of someone.” It can also be added as a suffix to make words like:

良い/いい, on the other hand, has the opposite effect and describes a particularly pleasant or nice example of that thing. Generally, いいis more common in spoken Japanese with the exception of 良いおをwhich is another way to wish someone a Happy New Year.

Positive perspective

The Japanese use いいa lot in their language.

Another example, いいwhich we mentioned in our Japanese Words for Weddingsarticle, uses Japanese number codeto interesting effect, too.

So far, so simple, right? However, from here things get a little more interesting. Both 悪いand いい/ 良いhave some fascinating grammatical usages that all learners should be familiar with.

MC Grammar

Readers growing up in the 90s will recognize the use of () が悪いas similar to that old stalwart of 90s-ness: the saying ‘”My bad’… presumably with a “dude” not far behind. While this may sound a little dated in English, it’s still a beloved expression among Japanese people.

This phrase is mostly used to admit a mistake, but it can also be used alongside certain disrespectful pronouns, as in sentences like おが悪いよ(You are wrong!) and だれが悪いのか(Who is at fault?).

～が悪いis also used in some other forms to create descriptions of things.

Back to いい. This is also used in a number of important grammar forms. ～していい？is a common way to ask casually if you have permission to do something. Daily use examples includeしていい？(Is it okay to ask a question) and失礼してもいい？(May I be excused?).

Another common grammar form is ～ほうがいいwhich is used to state a preference between different options.

Up late playing video games with a Japanese gamerwho asks you if you want to play another? You might say たほうがいい(It’s best to sleep). Or, if you’re aware that you’ve been spending too much time gaming, you might sayしたほうがいい(I should do some exercise).

Who’s bad?

While in English, the words good and evil are rarely found together, Japanese is a little freer, allowing contradictory concepts to be combined to make hybrid words stitched together like Frankenstein’s monster.

Good and evil can be combined to make 善悪or sometimes しし.

These words are used in sentences that deal with both concepts at the same time such asは善悪のがない(He has no distinction between good and evil) and は善悪の区別がつかない(Children can’t distinguish good from evil).

Finally, it is worth adding in theあく-reading of the 悪kanji. Despite 悪いbeing a beginner/intermediate learner’s word, あくis usually used in really advanced words.

This is also often added as a prefix to make complex words such as(Wickedness), 悪(Evil intention) and, of course, the lord of darkness himself, the 悪(Devil).

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