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JLPT N3Expressions

～っぽい— Has a Tendency Toward

A suffix that turns nouns, adjectives, or verb stems into an い-adjective meaning 'ish', 'looks/feels like', or 'tends to'. With nouns it means 'resembling' (子供っぽい = childish); with verb stems it means 'prone to' (忘れっぽい = forgetful). Often slightly negative or casual.

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Pro lessonUNIT 42 · EXPRESSIONS

Structure · 形

[Noun / い-adj stem / Verb ます-stem] + っぽい

Examples · 例文

  • 彼の話し方は子供っぽい。

    Kare no hanashikata wa kodomoppoi.

    The way he talks is childish.

    子供 (child) + っぽい = 'ish / resembling', mildly critical

  • 最近、忘れっぽくなってきた。

    Saikin, wasureppoku natte kita.

    Lately I've become forgetful.

    忘れ (stem of 忘れる) + っぽい = 'prone to forgetting'

  • この魚はもう白っぽくなっている。

    Kono sakana wa mou shiroppoku natte iru.

    This fish has already turned whitish.

    白 (white) + っぽい = 'ish', a partial or approximate quality

Usage notes · 注意

  • It conjugates as an い-adjective (っぽく, っぽかった, etc.).
  • With verb stems it means a habitual tendency (怒りっぽい = quick to anger).
  • Casual and often carries a faintly negative shade.

Commonly confused with

The JLPT rarely asks whether you recognise a pattern — it asks which of several similar patterns fits. These are the ones ～っぽい is tested against.

vs～らしい

～らしい means 'typical / behaving as one ideally should' (positive: 男らしい = manly); ～っぽい means merely 'resembles' and is often negative.

vs～みたい

～みたい compares one thing to another ('like ~'); ～っぽい describes an inherent quality or tendency of the thing itself.

More expressions

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