良さ, Yosa - Meaning in Japanese

In Japanese, yosa 良さ, also spelled yosa よさ, means "good-ness" or "how good it is." It's the sa-form, "-ness form," of the i-adjective yoi 良い, "good," and the de facto sa-form of its more common synonym, ii いい.

Don't mistake yosa 良さ with yosasou 良さそう, which means "it seems it's good," or with the expression yossha! よっしゃ！, "alright!"

• Examples

Examples

The inflection yosa 良さ is sometimes found in inflections of set phrases that include ii いい. For example:

• un ga ii 運がいい
  The luck is good.
  [You're] lucky.
• un no yosa 運の良さ
  The goodness of the luck.
  How good the luck is.
  How lucky [you] are.

• atama ga ii 頭がいい
  The head is good.
  [You're] smart.
• atama no yosa 頭の良さ
  The goodness of the head.
  How good the head is.
  How smart [you] are.

• kimochi ii 気持ちいい
  Good-feeling.
  Pleasant.
• kimochi yosa 気持ちよさ
  The goodness of the feeling.
  How good it feels.
  How pleasant it is.

• kakko ii カッコいい
  Good appearance.
  Cool.
• kakko yosa カッコよさ
  The goodness of the appearance.
  How good the appearance is.
  How cool it looks.