How can I say in Japanese that it was a rainy day yesterday?
Adjective and noun form change for the past tense
First of all,
- I-adjective : form change (present time (negative), past time (affirmative, negative)
- Na-adjective : no form change
- Noun : no form change
These are some general rules for Japanese adjectives and nouns. In this article, we will explore how to use na-adjectives and nouns in the past tense.
It’s not the form of the noun or the na-adjective that transforms but…
In a one word,
We change the form of the BE-verb to describe the noun and the na-adjective in the past tense
By “Be-verb” here, I’m talking about
です
desu
And it changes
From:
です : is
Desu
To:
じゃありません : is not
Ja arimasen
and
From:
でした : was
Deshita
To:
じゃありませんでした : was not
Ja arimasen deshita
Thus, for example,
A:
昨日、雨でしたか。
Kinoo, ame deshita ka.
Was it a rainy day yesterday?
B:
いいえ、雨じゃありませんでした。
Iie, ame ja arimasen deshita.
No, it was not a rainy day.
京都はきれいでした。
Kyooyo wa kirei deshita.
Kyoto was beautiful.
See also: i-adjective (past)
Weather and nouns in Japanese
When discussing theweatherin Japanese, besides using verbs, nouns are commonly employed. We prefer to useweather noun expressions to describe the current weather conditions.
And here’s a list of weather noun expressions:
晴れ: hare: sunny weather
雨: ame: rainy weather
曇り: cloudy weather
雪: snowing weather
雷: thundering weather
So, for example,
今日は晴れです。昨日は雷でした。
Kyoo wa hare desu. Kinoo wa kaminari deshita.
It is sunny today. It was thundering yesterday
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