0002 : Japanese basics (N5-N3) : Adjectives in Japanese

grammar
21.02.2023

 

What are adjectives like in Japanese?

 

2 types of adjectives

 

There are 2 kinds of adjectives in Japanese: 

 

  • i-adjective : ends with hiragana い like 安い (yasui : cheap), 易しい (yasashii : easy), かわいい (kawaii : cute)
  • na-adjective : not i-adjective like 便利 (benri : useful), 綺麗（kirei : clean, beautiful）.

 

*When combined with a noun, な (na) appears at the end of a na-adjective, which is why it is called a na-adjective such as 綺麗な部屋 (kirei-na heya : clean room).

 

Position of the adjective

 

In general, we can place an adjective : 

 

  • before a noun : かわいい犬 (kawaii inu : cute dog)
  • before the type be-verb : かわいいです(kawaii desu : is cute)

 

Why is it important to know the types of the adjectives?

 

It’s very important to know which adjective belongs to which type, because an adjective can be conjugated and the way it is conjugated varies depending on the type.

 

Adjective form change

 

In Japanese, adjectives change its form according to 

 

  • Time (present / past)
  • Sentence type (affirmative / negative)
  • Following particle, auxiliary and verb

 

e.g.

かわいい (kawaii : cute)

  • かわいかった (kawaika tta : was cute)
  • かわいくない (kawaiku nai : not cute)
  • かわいければ (kawaike reba : if cute)

 

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