0060 – Japanese basics (N5-N3) – Adjective sentence 2 (negative form & question)

 

See: Adjective sentence 1 for basic knowledge about Japanese adjective

 

Negative sentence with an adjective in Japanese

 

When negating an adjective sentence, it is not straightforward in Japanese:

 

• na-adjective + じゃない (janai)

• i-adjective (い(i) → く(ku)) + ない(nai)

 

As you can see, the form of the i-adjective must be modified.

And to make it sound polite, add です (desu).

 

So, for example, 

 

安い(yasui: cheap) → 安くない(yasuku nai: not cheap)

 

寿司は安くないです。

sushi wa yasuku nai desu.

 

Exception adjective “good”

 

There is an i-adjective to which we must pay attention to:

 

いい

ii

good

 

When it comes to negate this adjective, we must change it all:

 

いい(ii: good) → よくない(yoku nai: not good)

 

So, for example,

 

これはいいです。

kore wa ii desu.

This is good.

 

これはよくないです。

kore wa yoku nai desu.

This is not good.

 

Soften the negation

 

We can add before i-adjective negation

 

あまり

amari

 

to soften the nuance.

 

For example,

 

この映画はあまりおもしろくないです。

kono eiga wa amari omoshiroku nai desu.

This movie is not so interesting.

 

Asking about how X is

 

If you want to ask how X is in Japanese, you can use

 

どう

doo

How is

 

For example, 

 

A:

このチョコレートはどうですか。

kono chokoreeto wa doo desu ka.

How’s this chocolate?

 

B:

とてもおいしいです。

totemo oishii desu.

It’s very tasty.

 

C:

あまりおいしくないです。

amari oishiku nai desu.

It’s not very tasty.