Learn all about the two types of adjectives, and how to use them
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| Welcome to learn Japanese grammar absolute beginner. In this video series, you learn basic Japanese grammar patterns and phrases through easy to follow audio and visual cues. Here is what we will cover in this lesson. |
| Ready? |
| Let’s get started. |
| Noami: これは古いです。 (Kore wa furui desu.) |
| Naomi: In Japanese, there are two types of adjectives, i-adjectives and na-adjectives. |
| Peter: In the phrase, an old pen, old is the adjective. In Japanese as well, adjectives can precede nouns. When i-adjectives precede nouns, i-adjectives come directly before the noun just as in English. |
| Naomi: Old is 古い (furui), pen is ペン (pen), so old pen is 古いペン (furui pen) |
| Peter: Now adjectives don’t only come before nouns, they can also come in the predicate. Naomi-sensei, how do you say this is old? |
| Naomi: これは古いです。 (Kore wa furui desu.) |
| Peter: Let’s break down this sentence. |
| Naomi: これ (kore) |
| Peter: This. |
| Naomi: は (wa) |
| Peter: Topic marking particle meaning as for. |
| Naomi: 古い (furui) |
| Peter: Old. |
| Naomi: です (desu) |
| Peter: Formal form of the copula is, am, are. |
| So literally this old is. Of course, the sentence means this is old. |
| Naomi: 古い (furui) is an i-adjective and this is its dictionary form. |
| Peter: Now let us introduce some i-adjectives and review their usage. |
| Naomi: おいしい (oishii) |
| Peter: Delicious, tasty. |
| Naomi: おいしいチョコレート (oishii chokorēto) |
| Peter: Delicious chocolate. |
| Naomi: チョコレートはおいしいです。 (Chokorēto wa oishii desu.) |
| Peter: Chocolate is delicious. Can you give us one more example? |
| Naomi: はやい (hayai) |
| Peter: Fast. |
| Naomi: 車 (kuruma) is car. So, |
| はやい車 (hayai kuruma) would be |
| Peter: Fast car. |
| Naomi: 車ははやいです。 (Kuruma wa hayai desu.) |
| Peter: Cars are fast. |
| Notice how the dictionary form of i-adjectives end with the i-syllable. |
| これは古いです。 (Kore wa furui desu.) |
| 私はひまです。 (Watashi wa hima desu.) |
| In Japanese, there are two types of adjectives i-adjectives and na-adjectives. |
| Peter: When i-adjectives precede nouns, i-adjectives come directly before the noun. Na-adjectives, however, when they come before a noun, na is inserted between the adjective and the noun. Naomi-sensei, how do you say a special pen in Japanese? |
| Naomi: Special is 特別 (tokubetsu) Special pen is 特別なペン (tokubetsu na pen) |
| Peter: That’s why this type of adjective is called a na-adjective. Now adjectives don’t only come before nouns, they can also come in the predicate. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Peter: Naomi-sensei, how do you say this is special? |
| Naomi: これは特別です。 (Kore wa tokubetsu desu.) |
| Peter: Remember that 特別 (tokubetsu) means special and it’s a na-adjective. Next let’s introduce some na-adjectives and review their usage. First we have |
| Naomi: 静か (shizuka) |
| Peter: Quiet. |
| Naomi: 静かな車 (shizuka na kuruma) |
| Peter: Quiet car. |
| When na-adjectives come before a noun, na has to be added to the dictionary form. |
| Naomi: How about this sentence |
| 東京は静かです。 (Tōkyō wa shizuka desu.) |
| Peter: Tokyo is quiet. |
| Here Shizuka, the na-adjective is used in a sentence but we don’t have the na. That’s because it doesn’t preceed a noun. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Peter: Can you give us one more example? |
| Naomi: ひま (hima) |
| Peter: Free as in free time. |
| Naomi: 日 (hi) is day. So ひまな日 (hima na hi) would be |
| Peter: Free day, a day where you have nothing to do. Na is inserted between the adjective and the noun. |
| Naomi: ひまな日 (hima na hi) How about this sentence? 私 (watashi) is I. So 私はひまです。 (Watashi wa hima desu.) |
| Peter: I am free, I have nothing to do. |
| 私はひまです。 (Watashi wa hima desu.) |
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