Spot the Kanji for Good and Evil in Everyday Japanese

The two characters for good and evil (or bad), 良（よ）い and 悪（わる） respectfully, are really useful characters.

Give us the bad news first

The 悪 kanji, for example, can also be added as an adjective to the front of many words to mean an unpleasant version of that.

Take, for example, 悪口（わるぐち） which means “to talk badly of someone.” It can also be added as a suffix to make words like:

• 気持（きも）ち悪い = A bad feeling
• 具合（ぐあい）悪い = (Feeling) under the weather
• 気分（きぶん）悪い = Feeling sick

良い/いい, on the other hand, has the opposite effect and describes a particularly pleasant or nice example of that thing. Generally, いい is more common in spoken Japanese with the exception of 良いお年（とし）を which is another way to wish someone a Happy New Year.

Positive perspective

The Japanese use いい a lot in their language.

• いい人（ひと）です = Good guy/gal
• いい匂（にお）い = Nice smell
• 運（うん）がいい = Lucky
• 頭（あたま）がいい = Smart
• いいやつだ = A good dude/bloke
• 仲（なか）がいい = Get on well with

Another example, いい夫婦（ふうふ） which we mentioned in our Japanese Words for Weddings article, uses Japanese number code to interesting effect, too.

So far, so simple, right? However, from here things get a little more interesting. Both 悪い and いい/ 良い have some fascinating grammatical usages that all learners should be familiar with.

MC Grammar

Readers growing up in the 90s will recognize the use of (僕（ぼく）) が悪い as similar to that old stalwart of 90s-ness: the saying ‘”My bad’… presumably with a “dude” not far behind. While this may sound a little dated in English, it’s still a beloved expression among Japanese people.

This phrase is mostly used to admit a mistake, but it can also be used alongside certain disrespectful pronouns, as in sentences like お前（まえ）が悪いよ (You are wrong!) and だれが悪いのか (Who is at fault?).

～が悪い is also used in some other forms to create descriptions of things.

• 目（め）が悪い = Have bad eyesight
• 仲が悪い = To be on bad terms with someone
• 顔（かお）色（いろ）が悪い = Look off-color/pale
• 天気（てんき）が悪い = Bad weather (in case you were needing to generate some small talk in Japanese)

Back to いい. This is also used in a number of important grammar forms. ～していい？ is a common way to ask casually if you have permission to do something. Daily use examples include 質問（しつもん）していい？ (Is it okay to ask a question) and 失礼（しつれい）してもいい？ (May I be excused?).

Another common grammar form is ～ほうがいい which is used to state a preference between different options.

Up late playing video games with a Japanese gamer who asks you if you want to play another? You might say 寝（ね）たほうがいい (It’s best to sleep). Or, if you’re aware that you’ve been spending too much time gaming, you might say 運動（うんどう）したほうがいい (I should do some exercise).

Who’s bad?

While in English, the words good and evil are rarely found together, Japanese is a little freer, allowing contradictory concepts to be combined to make hybrid words stitched together like Frankenstein’s monster.

Good and evil can be combined to make 善悪（ぜんあく） or sometimes 善（よ）し悪（あ）し.

These words are used in sentences that deal with both concepts at the same time such as 彼（かれ）は善悪の区別（くべつ）がない (He has no distinction between good and evil) and 子供（こども）は善悪の区別がつかない (Children can’t distinguish good from evil).

Finally, it is worth adding in the あく-reading of the 悪 kanji. Despite 悪い being a beginner/intermediate learner’s word, あく is usually used in really advanced words.

This is also often added as a prefix to make complex words such as 悪（あく）事（じ） (Wickedness), 悪意（い） (Evil intention) and, of course, the lord of darkness himself, the 悪魔（ま） (Devil).

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