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怖がる (kowagaru) Japanese meaning: be afraid of | Kotomora
Common word› JLPT N1 › Freq. Frequency Top 50,000 Conjugation 怖がる · godan verb (-ru)
Form Positive Negative Dictionary 怖こわ がる 怖こわ がらない Polite 怖こわ がります 怖こわ がりません Past polite 怖こわ がりました 怖こわ がりませんでした Past 怖こわ がった 怖こわ がらなかった Te-form 怖こわ がって 怖こわ がらないで Desire 怖こわ がりたい 怖こわ がりたくない Potential 怖こわ がれる 怖こわ がれない Passive 怖こわ がられる 怖こわ がられない Causative 怖こわ がらせる 怖こわ がらせない Causative passive 怖こわ がらせられる also 怖こわ がらされる 怖こわ がらせられない also 怖こわ がらされない Volitional 怖こわ がろう Polite volitional 怖こわ がりましょう Imperative 怖こわ がれ 怖こわ がるな Conditional 怖こわ がれば 怖こわ がらなければ Tara conditional 怖こわ がったら 怖こわ がらなかったら
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Children are afraid of the dark.
She was scared of the injection and started crying.
Kanji 怖 dreadful, be frightened, fearful Transitive / intransitive 怖がる can be used both transitively with を marking the thing feared (犬を怖がる, 'to be scared of dogs') and intransitively describing a general state of fear (子供が怖がっている, 'the child is scared').
Related words 恐れる is more formal and used for deep, abstract fear (danger, consequences), while 怖がる is a casual verb describing visible, immediate fear reactions.
怯える emphasizes trembling or cowering from fright, whereas 怖がる simply describes the state of being scared without focusing on physical trembling.
怖がる is the standard, neutral word for feeling scared, while ビビる is slangy and often has a comical or exaggerated nuance.
Don't confuse with 怖い is an i-adjective meaning 'scary/frightening' describing the thing itself, while 怖がる is a verb describing a person's act of showing fear.
怖がる and 嫌がる share the same 〜がる pattern for showing an emotion outwardly, but 怖がる is specifically about showing fear while 嫌がる is about showing dislike or reluctance.
怖がる (to be scared) sounds very similar to 強張る (to stiffen) but describes an emotion rather than a physical state, though fear often causes the latter.
Written forms 怖こわ がる
Standard kanji spelling; 怖 is the most common character for 'fear' in modern Japanese.
恐こわ がる
Alternate kanji spelling using 恐; less common but still encountered.
Etymology Derived from the adjective 怖い (こわい, 'scary') + the suffix がる, which attaches to adjectives to express that someone appears to feel that way.
