sugoi すごい, 凄い

In Japanese, sugoi すごい, also spelled sugoi 凄い, means something is "incredible," so incredible it can be "unbelievable" or "awesome" or "amazing," and, sometimes, "horrific." It's an adjective, but it's often used as an expression, making it tricky to translate but easy to interpret.

• Translation
• Sugee すげぇ, すげー
• Adjective
• Conjugation
  • Sugokatta すごかった
  • Sugokunai すごくない
  • Sugoku すごく
• すごい vs. 凄い

Translation

Translating sugoi すごい from Japanese is a bit difficult. That's because, despite of what it literally means, sugoi is often used as an expression of amazement at something extraordinary, so how you'd translate sugoi to English depends mostly on the context in which it's used. For example:

• sugoi すごい
  You're good. I'm amazed at how good you are.
• sugoi すごい
  That's amazing. Do it again!
• sugoi すごい
  O.M.G.!!!
• sugoi すごい
  I didn't even know the human body could do that.
• sugoi すごい
  That's a disproportionate quantity of tuna you got there.

As you can see, the word sugoi can be used for anything that's extreme and unusual. Sometimes it's used for good things, like to praise someone for their mad skills. Other times it's used in amazement. Other times in disbelief. It really varies.

Manga: Iroiro na Aji　いろいろなあじ, by Haruse Hiroki 晴瀬ひろき
From: "Kemono Friends Anthology Comic Japari Café Compilation," Kemono Furenzu Ansorojii Komikku Japari Kafe Hen けものフレンズ アンソロジーコミック ジャパリカフェ編

• Saabaru-chan
  sugooi!
  サーバルちゃん　すごーい！
  Serval-chan amaaazing!
  • sugooi すごーい
    suggoi すっごい
    suggooi すっごーい
    Ways to say sugoi with effect.
• sugoi wa
  すごいわ
  [It's] amazing!
• e'hen えっへん！
  Eh heh!

Sugee すげぇ, すげー

The word sugee すげぇ, also spelled sugee すげー, is a relaxed pronunciation of sugoi. It means the same thing, except it's a wrong different way of saying it.

Other variants include: suggee すっげぇ, suggee すっげー.

Manga: Boku no Hero Academia, 僕のヒーローアカデミア (Chapter 1)

• Context: All Might punched a villain so hard it started raining. (seriously.)
• migite ippon de
  tenki ga kawacchimatta!!!
  右手一本で　天気が変わっちまった！！！
  He changed the weather with just his right arm!!!
  • Literally:
    With one right arm the weather ended up changed!!!
  • ippon 一本
    One cylindrical object. (one arm, in this case.)
• sugeeeeee
  すげぇぇぇぇぇ
  AWESOOOOOOME
• kore ga...
  Ooru Maito!!!
  これが…オールマイト！！！
  This [is]... All Might!!!

Adjective

Although sugoi is often used as an expression, technically sugoi is an adjective. Specifically, it's an i-adjective, which's an adjective that ends with -i ～い, like sugoi すごい　does.

This means that you can put sugoi すごい before nouns to qualify them as "awesome" or "terrific" or "incredible" or "unbelievable" and so on.

• sugoi kao　すごい顔
  Incredible face.
  What a weird face! (body parts list)
• sugoi bakuhatsu　すごい爆発
  Incredible explosion.
  What a powerful explosion!
• sugoi waza　すごい技
  Incredible technique.
  What an masterful technique!
• sugoi katana　すごい刀
  Incredible sword.
  What a wonderful sword!

Conjugation

Since sugoi すごい is an i-adjective, it can be inflected like one. The following are inflections of sugoi:

• sugoi すごい
  Incredible.
• sugokatta すごかった
  Was incredible. (past.)
• sugokunai すごくない
  Not incredible. (negative.)
• sugokunakatta すごくなかった
  Was not incredible. (past negative.)
• sugoku すごく
  Incredibly. (adverb.)
• sugokute すごくて
  Incredible and... (te-form.)
• sugosugiru!　すごすぎる！
  Too incredible! (stem plus sugiru すぎる auxiliary.)

Sugokatta すごかった

The past form, sugokatta, would be used, literally, for things that were incredible in the past. For example:

• kinou wa sugokatta 昨日はすごかった
  Yesterday was incredible.

Sugokunai すごくない

Combined with the nai ない auxiliary adjective we have the negative form sugokunai. So, obviously, it means something "is not incredible."

• bouryoku wa sugokunai 暴力はすごくない
  Violence isn't incredible.
• bouryouku wa sugoku nanka nai 暴力はすごくなんかない
  Violence isn't anything like incredible.

However, most of the time,　sugokunai is used to ask an "isn't it?" style question. For example:

• kore wa sugokunai これはすごくない
  This [is] not incredible. (assertion.)
• kore wa sugokunai? これはすごくない？
  Isn't this incredible? (question.)

Manga: Aho Girl / Aho Gaaru アホガール

• jitsuryoku tesuto
  zenbu rei-ten datta!!
  実力テスト　全部０点だった！！
  [I got] zero [in] all proficiency tests!!
  The proficiency tests were all zero-points!! (literally.)
  • rei 零
    Zero.
• aho da na
  アホだな
  [You] are dumb.
• maaku shiito datta noni!!
  マークシートだったのに！！
  Even though it was [multiple-choice questions]!!
  • maaku shitto マークシート
    Mark sheet. (made-up English, wasei-eigo.)
    A bubble sheet, or　optical answer sheet. That sheet for multiple-question tests with circles you fill and a computer scans and says your score.
• sugokunai!?
  すごくない！？
  Isn't it incredible!?

Sugoku すごく

The word sugoku すごく is the adverbial form of sugoi. It's used to make other words "incredible," that is, you use it to intensify other adjectives.

Manga: Aho Girl / Aho Gaaru アホガール

• sugoku
  aho da na
  すごくアホだな
  [You] are very dumb.
  • aho アホ
    Stupid. (noun and na-adjective.)

• ureshii　嬉しい
  Happy. Glad.
• sugoku ureshii　すごく嬉しい
  [I'm] very happy. [I'm] very glad.

• samui 寒い
  Cold.
• sugoku samui すごく寒い
  [It's] very cold.

Manga: Iroiro na Aji　いろいろなあじ, by Haruse Hiroki 晴瀬ひろき
From: "Kemono Friends Anthology Comic Japari Café Compilation," Kemono Furenzu Ansorojii Komikku Japari Kafe Hen けものフレンズ アンソロジーコミック ジャパリカフェ編

• Context: Alpaca Suri made three types of tea, asked how they tasted.
• sore wa
  それは
  That [is]
• mochiron
  もちろん
  Of course.
• zenbu suggoku
  oishii yo!
  全部すっごく　おいしいよ！
  [They were] all really delicious!

The meaning of the word sugoi makes it a bit harder to use it as adverbs for verbs, but it can happen too.

• tsukareru　疲れる
  To tire. To get tired.
• sugoku tsukareru すごく疲れる
  To tire incredibly. To tire a lot.
  [It's very tiring.]

すごい vs. 凄い

When written with kanji, sugoi becomes sugoi 凄い. Note, however, that sugoi is normally written without kanji, as sugoi すごい.