寒い vs 冷たい – The Difference between the 2 Words for Cold

There are 2 ways to say cold in Japanese：

寒さむい
冷つめたい

Basically, the difference is that the first refers to the weather and the second actual things.

寒い

If you want to say that it is cold today, then you would say 寒さむい.

You can think of 寒い as referring to the environment. This could be the room you are in, outside or any other place. I guess you could think of 寒い as referring to the air being cold,

But, other than a few exceptions like above, 寒い is not really used to refer to things. In this case I think of the wind as more of a part of the weather. So, if you hear 寒い think of it as referring to the environment, weather or just the situation of being cold.

冷たい

If you want to actually refer to something tangible as being cold, then you would use 冷つめたい.

Resources

• 「寒い」と「冷たい」の違い