In Japanese, kakkoii かっこいい means "good-looking." It's generally used toward things and people who "look good," in various ways, such as looking "cool," "impressive," "stylish," "fashionable," "admirable," and so on.
Variants of the word include: kakkoii カッコイイ, kakko-ii カッコいい, かっこ良い, kakko-yoi かっこよい, kakkou-ii 格好いい, 格好良い, kakkou-yoi 格好よい, and kakkee かっけえ, かっけぇ, かっけー.
Usage
"Cool"
Generally speaking, kakko-ii かっこいい is used toward cool things and people who do cool things. Basically anything you find in shounen anime: guns, swords, robots, giant robots, giant guns, giant swords, ninja, samurai, pirates, etc. are kakko-ii.
- kakko-ii!
かっこいい！
[It's] cool!
[That's] cool!
Since kakkoii かっこいい is an adjective, it can come before nouns to say it's a "cool" thing. For example:
- kakkoii robotto
かっこいいロボット
A cool robot.. - kakkoii katana
かっこいい刀
A cool sword. - kakkoii namae
かっこいい名前
A cool name. - kakkoii kyara
かっこいいキャラ
A cool character.
And of course:
- kakkoii serifu
かっこいい台詞
A cool line. (line as in something you say, line of dialogue.) - kakkoii koto wo iu
かっこいいことを言う
To say a cool thing.
To say [something] cool.
Like:
- ore no nakama wa zettai korosase ya shinaai yo!
オレの仲間は絶対殺させやしなーいよ！
Absolutely won't let [you] kill my [friends]!- I'll never let my friends be killed!
- —Kakashi, from Naruto.
- mou daijoubu! WATASHI GA KITA
もう大丈夫！私が来た
[It's] now alright! I came.- It's alright now! I'm here.
- —All Might, from Boku no Hero Academia.
- daga kotowaru!
だが断る！
But [I] refuse!- —Kishibe Rohan, from Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken.
- ore ga omae ni katenai nante koto wa
ore ga ichiban yoku wakatteru-n-da-yoo'......!!
sore demo yaru shika nai-n-da
ore shika inai-n-da
kateru katenai janaku
koko de ore wa omae ni tachi-mukawanakucha ikenai-n-da!
俺がお前に勝てないなんてことは
俺が一番わかってるんだよぉっ･･････！！
それでもやるしかないんだ
俺しかいないんだ
勝てる勝てないじゃなく
ここで俺はお前に立ち向かわなくちゃいけないんだ！
That I can't defeat you,
I'm the one that knows that the most well.
Even so I have to do it.
There's nobody here but me.
Whether I can win or I can't win doesn't matter.
What matters is that here, I must stand against you.- —Mumen Rider, from One Punch Man.
- Context: the speaker confidently talks about how amazing Jun was.
- {Jun-nii no koukousei φ yatta} koro wa
淳兄の高校生やったころは
Around the time {brother Jun [was] a high school student}. - sorya mou
そりゃもう
"That [was] already"- Expression used to assert something was incredible.
- {kakkou yoka nante} mon janakatta desu yo
格好よかなんてもんじゃなかったですよ
Not something {[you'd call just] cool}.- He was more than just cool.
- Note: this is kyuushuu dialect. In which i-adjectives sometimes end in ka instead.
- kakkou yoka 格好よか
kakkou yoi 格好よい
kakkou ii 格好いい
Cool.
- kenka mo meppou tsuyokashi
ケンカもめっぽう強かし
In fighting, too, [he was] extremely strong.- tsuyoka 強か
tsuyoi 強い
Strong.
- tsuyoka 強か
- atama mo yokashi
頭もよかし
[He was also smart.]- atama ga yoka 頭がよか
atama ga yoi 頭がよい
atama ga ii 頭がいい
"Head is good."
To be smart.
- atama ga yoka 頭がよか
"To Look Cool"
Sometimes, kakkoii かっこいい ends up being translated as "looks cool," that is, as a verb, despite the fact that kakkoii is an i-adjective, not a verb.
- Context: a girl strikes a pose with a gun in hand.
- dou?
どう？
How is it? (literally.)- How does it look?
- How do I look?
- dou tte nani ga?
どうってなにが？
How is what?- How is it? What [are you talking about.] (literally.)
- kakkoii ka dou ka ni kimatteru desho!!
カッコいいかどうかに決まってるでしょ！！
[I'm talking about] whether it [looks] cool or not, obviously!! - mendokusee na!!
めんどくせぇな！！
What a pain in the ass, aren't you!!
"Good-Looking"
Literally, kakkoii かっこいい is the word kakko カッコ, which is an abbreviation of kakkou 格好, "appearance," plus the i-adjective ii いい, "good," so it means "good-looking," just like kimochi-ii 気持ちいい means "good-feeling."
But "to look good" is rather vague. It's important to know what kind of "good" does kakkoii mean.
Basically, kakko-ii is the antonym of "lame," which is literally kakkowarui かっこ悪い in Japanese. If you're the opposite of lame, you're kakkoii. Of course, that doesn't mean you need to be a badass like Michael L. Jackson to be kakkoii, you can be kakkoii for a lot of reasons.
"Good Impression"
Besides being used to say "cool," kakkoii is used more generally to say the appearance of something leaves a "good impression."
This "appearance" can be how it looks like, but also how it sounds like, how someone behaves like, and so on. So long as it leaves a favorable impression, it's kakkoii.
"Fashionable"
Thus, kakkoii can be used toward clothes, outfits, if said clothes leave a good impression: if they're fashionable, if someone is well-dressed.
- kakkoii fuku
かっこいい服
Good-looking clothes.
Clothes that leave a good impression.
Fashionable clothes.
Stylish clothes. - kakkoii kuruma
かっこいい車
Good-looking car.
Car that leaves a good impression.
Fashionable car.
Stylish car.
"Attractive"
Another way kakkoii is normally used is to talk about the physical appearance of people: attractiveness leaves a good impression.
- kakkoii otoko
かっこいい男
A good-looking man.
An impressively looking man.
A handsome man. - kakkoii onna
かっこいい女
A good-looking woman.
An impressively looking woman.
A handsome woman?- Oddly, you don't usually call women handsome in English, but the idea is more-or-less the same.
"Admirable"
Sometimes, doing a good act of kindness, or saying the morally right thing, can leave a good impression to someone. Since it leaves a good impression, it makes you kakkoii. In this sense, kakkoii would better be translated as "admirable."
Kakkoii Tokoro かっこいい所
The phrase kakkoii tokoro カッコいい所 means literally a "good-looking spot." It's often used when you want to show someone yourself in a "good-looking situation," in order to impression them. When you want to show what's impressive about you.
It's also spelled kakkoii toko かっこいいトコ.
- kakkoii tokoro wo miseru
かっこいい所を見せる
kakkoii toko wo miseru
カッコいいトコを見せる
To show a good-looking spot.- To (try to) impress someone by doing something impressive.
- To show a part of [you] that's impressive.
- To show off by doing something cool, impressive, admirable, etc.
This can happen, for example, when guys try to win sports matches or fight delinquents in order to show off to a girl, or when a father tries to show he's a "cool dad" and impress their child by doing something, and so on.
Similar Words
Although kakkoii can be translated as "cool," it only means someone or something that has a cool appearance. Other words can be translated as "cool" when "cool" means something else.
- suzushii
涼しい
Cool. (wind.)
Refreshing. (juice.) - kuuru
クール
Cool. Calm. Composed. (e.g. a kuudere クーデレ.)
Anime: Sakamoto Desu ga? 坂本ですが？ (Episode 1, Stitch)
- Context: Sakamoto looking cool while standing in the hallway.
Likewise, although kakkoii can be translated as "looks good," there are other words which can be translated like that:
- yoku dekite-iru
よく出来ている
[It looks good.]
[It looks] well made. - yoku dekita
よく出来た
[It looks good.]
Well done. - genki sou desu
元気そうです
[He looks good.]
[He seems well.]
[He seems to be in good health.] - iketeru
イケてる
[He looks good.]- Slang used in the "well-dressed" or "stylish" sense only.
- And only toward people.
Sarcastic Usage
The word kakkoii カッコいい isn't always used with honesty, sometimes it's used sarcastically, in order to mock someone.
This could happen between a group of friends to playfully embarrass someone, but in anime it most often happens when a villain or bad guy mocks the hero by saying stuff like:
- kakkoii na
カッコいいな
[You're] cool, huh?- Oh, wow, you're so cool, doing heroic stuff like that.
- You think you're the good guy, don't you?
- Hey, look, we've got a "hero" here!
The word kakko-tsukete カッコつけて, used someone "tries to look cool," is also used in criticizing tone with certain frequency.
Conjugation
Since kakkoii カッコいい is a compound word that ends in an i-adjective, it can be inflected like an i-adjective:
Further Reading
- 様々なニュアンスで「かっこいい」を伝える英語表現15選 - eikaiwa.dmm.com, accessed 2019-02-22.
Suggests, as an English translation for kakkoii, the words: handsome, good-looking, attractive, clean-cut, hot, cute, cool, stylish, classy, nifty, and others.
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