～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.
Structure
[Noun / い-adj stem / Verb ます-stem] + っぽい
Examples
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
• 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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