JAPANESE Lesson 18 - Fantastic Adjectives

[Starry Starry Fright]

こんばんは。

Alright, up until now you've had a brief overview of Japanese adjectives. Now, you're about to get a more detailed breakdown of how these words work.

Before I say anything else, I just want to clarify this - adjectives are words that modify nouns. Not verbs. Just nouns. Just so we're clear.

Okay, in Japanese, there are two types of adjectives - i-adjectives and na-adjectives. How do we know which is which? Well, it goes like this: if it doesn't end in "i", or if it ends in "ei", it's a NA adjective. If it does end in "i" (not "ei"), it's probably an "I" adjective. Probably. There are NA-adjectives that end in an "i" sound, so the only way to be sure is memorization.

So, what's the difference between NA and I adjectives? It's simple, really. I adjectives can modify nouns directly, and NA adjectives cannot. I'll show you what I mean.


kore wa kawaii neko desu. sore wa kirei na hito desu.
This is a cute cat. That is a pretty person.

"Kawaii" is an i-adjective (adjectives ending in a double i sound will almost always be i-adjectives). When you use an i-adjective, you can just say ADJECTIVE NOUN. There's no particle in the middle.

On the other hand, "kirei" is a na-adjective. You can't just put it in front of nouns; you have to put the "na" particle in between. ADJECTIVE NA NOUN.

Of course, you can re-word your sentence to avoid having to use any particles.

kono neko wa kawaii desu. Sono hito wa kirei desu.
This cat is cute. That person is pretty.

The meaning is the same, but when you phrase it this way, neither adjective is directly modifying the noun, and no particles must be used.

I'll start you off on your adjective-learning journey with two lists of adjectives to memorize. Lucky you!

I-ADJECTIVES:

kawaii - cute
atarashii - new
oishii - tasty (There is no sexual innuendo with this word. For shame, people)
mazui - disgusting (Used in reference to food and taste only. NEVER use this to describe food someone else has prepared for you... at least, not to their face...)
ookii - big
chiisai - small
tsumaranai - boring
omoshiroi - interesting
muzukashii - difficult
yasashii - easy (Again, no sexual innuendo applies.)
isogashii - busy (remember this one?)
ii - good

NA-ADJECTIVES:

kirei - pretty/clean
shizuka - quiet
jouzu - skillful
yuumei - famous
suki - liked
kirai - hated
kiken - dangerous
sekushi - sexy (okay, yes, this one IS sexual.)

Now that you've got all those memorized, we can get to the complicated part. You can use phrases as adjectives in Japanese. Let me show you.

"atama ga ii" is a phrase that means intelligent.

atama - head
ga - "is" particle
ii - good

Now, you can use this entire phrase as an adjective. An "atama ga ii hito" is a smart person. Likewise, the phrase "kami ga akai" means "red hair". A "kami ga akai hito" is a red-haired person.

I think that should be all you need to get you started with adjectives! Any questions, comments? Leave them here for me!  

[Nana Shinu Ai]

Kore wa Kawaii Inu desu. Sore wa Shizuka.
This is a cute dog. That is a quiet person.
i understand it Sensei. is this correct? XD
i had to use my notes for it it same concept but switch words.  

[Miyu_Aizawa]

ii is an irregular  

[Starry Starry Fright]

Miyu_Aizawa

ii is an irregular

It conjugates irregularly, but it is classified as an i-adjective. All three of my university texts list it as an i-adjective.  

[Miyu_Aizawa]

Starry Starry Fright

Miyu_Aizawa

ii is an irregular

It conjugates irregularly, but it is classified as an i-adjective. All three of my university texts list it as an i-adjective.

Well my sensei who is japanese from JAPAN says it is irregular.  

[Starry Starry Fright]

Miyu_Aizawa

Starry Starry Fright

Miyu_Aizawa

ii is an irregular

It conjugates irregularly, but it is classified as an i-adjective. All three of my university texts list it as an i-adjective.

Well my sensei who is japanese from JAPAN says it is irregular.

Interesting. All 11 people who wrote these textbooks are Japanese, and they've been taught to me by two professors and six TAs who are all from Japan.

It's probably a grammar point that was interpreted strangely into English or had something weird happen way back in its linguistic roots. There are lots of words and expressions like that. Since Japanese is an agglutinative language, and English has Germanic origins, we tend to over-classify their words.

The verb "ikimasu" is the same way - technically an う-adjective, but with an irregular conjugation pattern.

In any case, "ii" is not an adjectivial noun, and in the Japanese language, all noun modifiers that are not themselves adjectivial nouns must be classified as "true" adjectives, which we know as "i-adjectives". It just has an irregular conjugation.  

[Nana Shinu Ai]

domo ariagatou sensei. for post this up.  

[Nana Shinu Ai]

Jun es Kawaii desu.  

[Nana Shinu Ai]

Sakura wa Kawaii!  

[Nana Shinu Ai]

Inu wa kawaii desu.  

[Nana Shinu Ai]

kono usagi wa kawaii desu.  

[Nana Shinu Ai]

kuma wa kawaii desu.  

[Nana Shinu Ai]

Sakura wa sugoi desu.  

[Nana Shinu Ai]

Sakura wa sugoi desu.
mrgreen  

[Nana Shinu Ai]

kore wa wa Kawaii inu desu.