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I just finished the section on “Good” in Season 4′s い adjective conjugation section. I’ve seen good written as 良い and いい, and while the chapter says that the second one is more common, I still don’t really understand why. What context would you choose one over the other? Also, when I see good written as 良い, should I assume that the reading is よい?
Thanks!
よい is an older (and more formal) form – over time, the pronunciation shifted to いい, but it’s still よい at heart (which is why it switches back to よ～ whenever it conjugates – i.e. いい, よくない, よかった, よくなかった et cetera).
Basically, just use いい. 良い is probably going to be read as よい… I think… but noone’s going to bat an eyelid either way. If the reading is particularly important, there’ll be furigana.
Lots of readings have shifted over time – for example, if you ever see a long-o sound represented as ～おお, that’s because the second お used to be a ほ. For example, とおり used to be とほり. All languages have vowel shifts over time. English’s was particularly drastic. =)
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