Learn about -i adjectives and -na adjectives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: What Have You Forgotten in Japan Today? |
| Naomi: ナオミです。(Naomi desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. |
| Naomi: 13！ (Jū san!) |
| Peter: They are starting to add up. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Almost not newbie anymore. |
| Naomi: そうですか。(Sō deus ka.) That’s quite newbie still. |
| Peter: Well here is the thing. If you are just following along listening to the lessons, maybe still newbie but if you’ve signed up, if you are exploring on your own, if you are trying out these structures we’ve been introducing, reading the PDFs, getting into the learning center, I don’t know. I think, not newbie anymore. |
| Naomi: ああ、そうですか。(Ā, sō desu ka.) |
| Peter: そうですよ。(Sō desu yo.) So with that said, well, anybody out there who wants to tell us how far they have come, please leave us a post. We’d love to hear how far along you’ve come. Now in the meantime, let’s talk about today’s lesson. What’s going on? |
| Naomi: ええと (Eeto), I think they are in the office. |
| Peter: Okay. |
| Naomi: And Fabrizio is looking for something. |
| Peter: Oh do tell. What is he looking for? |
| Naomi: 財布 (saifu) |
| Peter: We will tell you what that means once we get into the lesson. Actually no after the lesson when we get into the vocab but for anybody who got it, great job. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Now what kind of Japanese will be covered in the lesson today? |
| Naomi: Polite Japanese. |
| Peter: Okay, and what about the grammar? |
| Naomi: Adjectives plus noun. |
| Peter: Now we did go over this previously with na-adjectives just to show you the difference but we didn’t do with i-adjectives. So in this lesson, we will be getting a taste of both. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: All right. Are we ready? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Let’s get into today’s lesson. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : ない。私の財布！ない！(Nai. Watashi no saifu! Nai!) |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : どんな財布ですか。(Donna saifu desu ka.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : 高い財布です。イタリアのデザイナーの財布です。とても素敵な財布です。(Takai saifu desu. Itaria no dezainā no saifu desu. Totemo suteki na saifu desu.) |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : あれですか。(Are desu ka.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : あー！そうです！私の財布です。うれしい！ありがとう。春人！(Ā! Sō desu! Watashi no saifu desu. Ureshii! Arigatō. Haruhito!) |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : どういたしまして。とても格好いい財布ですね。(Dōitashimashite. Totemo kakkoii saifu desu ne.) |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : ない！私の傘！ない！(Nai! Watashi no kasa! Nai!) |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : 夏見さんの傘はどんな傘ですか。(Natsumi-san no kasa wa donna kasa desu ka.) |
| もう一度お願いします。今度はゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Kondo wa yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : ない。私の財布！ない！(Nai. Watashi no saifu! Nai!) |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : どんな財布ですか。(Donna saifu desu ka.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : 高い財布です。イタリアのデザイナーの財布です。とても素敵な財布です。(Takai saifu desu. Itaria no dezainā no saifu desu. Totemo suteki na saifu desu.) |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : あれですか。(Are desu ka.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : あー！そうです！私の財布です。うれしい！ありがとう。春人！(Ā! Sō desu! Watashi no saifu desu. Ureshii! Arigatō. Haruhito!) |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : どういたしまして。とても格好いい財布ですね。(Dōitashimashite. Totemo kakkoii saifu desu ne.) |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : ない！私の傘！ない！(Nai! Watashi no kasa! Nai!) |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : 夏見さんの傘はどんな傘ですか。(Natsumi-san no kasa wa donna kasa desu ka.) |
| 次は、英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : ない。私の財布！ない！(Nai. Watashi no saifu! Nai!) |
| FABRIZIO: My wallet is missing! |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : どんな財布ですか。(Donna saifu desu ka.) |
| HARUHITO HIGASHI : What kind of wallet is it? |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : 高い財布です。イタリアのデザイナーの財布です。とても素敵な財布です。(Takai saifu desu. Itaria no dezainā no saifu desu. Totemo suteki na saifu desu.) |
| FABRIZIO: An expensive wallet. An Italian designer wallet. It's an extremely gorgeous wallet. |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : あれですか。(Are desu ka.) |
| HARUHITO HITGASHI: Is that your wallet? |
| ファブリツィオ: あー！そうです！私の財布です。うれしい！ありがとう。春人！(Ā! Sō desu! Watashi no saifu desu. Ureshii! Arigatō. Haruhito!) |
| FABRIZIO: Oh, yes! That's right. That's my wallet. I'm so glad you found it. Thank you, Haruhito. |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : どういたしまして。とても格好いい財布ですね。(Dōitashimashite. Totemo kakkoii saifu desu ne.) |
| HARUHITO HIGASHI: My pleasure. It's a very cool wallet. |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : ない！私の傘！ない！(Nai! Watashi no kasa! Nai!) |
| NATSUMI MINAMI: My umbrella is missing! |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : 夏見さんの傘はどんな傘ですか。(Natsumi-san no kasa wa donna kasa desu ka.) |
| HARUHITO HIGASHI: What kind of umbrella do you have, Natsumi? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Naomi-sensei, what did you think of today’s lesson? |
| Naomi: うーん。ファブリツィオさんはラッキーですね。(Ūn. Faburitsio-san wa rakkī desu ne.) |
| Peter: Now let’s give it one more chance to get what you said. What was that? |
| Naomi: ファブリツィオさんはラッキーですね。(Faburitsio-san wa rakkī desu ne.) |
| Peter: Fabrizio is lucky. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) There is an expression, ついてる (tsuite ru). It means lucky but ついてる (tsuite ru) is bit difficult. So I used ラッキー (rakkī) instead. |
| Peter: Which is an adjective meaning lucky. |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) Actually ラッキー (rakkī) is a な (na) ending adjective. |
| Peter: Really? |
| Naomi: はい。 ラッキーなピーターさん。(Hai. Rakkī na Pītā-san.) |
| Peter: Now and what about the pitch accent here? |
| Naomi: ラッキー (rakkī) |
| Peter: Going down. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: ラッキーなナオミ先生。(Rakkī na Naomi-sensei.) |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Ah but yes, also ついてる (tsuite ru) means in a state of being attached to. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: So the luck is stuck on you, but speaking of adjectives and vocab, let’s take a look at today’s… |
| Naomi: はい。どんな (Hai. donna) |
| Peter: What kind of. |
| Naomi: (slow) どんな (donna) (natural speed) どんな (donna) |
| Peter: Now this is a great interrogative. This will really help you take your Japanese to the next level because you can start to ask about things and when you ask questions with どんな (donna), chances are that there are lot of adjectives in the answer or well, either way, you are going to learn a lot more Japanese. |
| Naomi: And when you use どんな (donna), you need a noun after it. |
| Peter: And any noun will do. So it gives you a chance to ask about anything. |
| Naomi: ピーターさんはどんな人？(Pītā-san wa donna hito?) |
| Peter: What kind of person is Peter? ナオミ先生はどんな先生ですか。(Naomi-sensei wa donna sensei desu ka.) |
| Naomi: What kind of teacher? |
| Peter: What kind of teacher is Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: I am too scared to hear the answer. |
| Peter: I want to hear that. So please leave us a post. お願いします。(Onegai shimasu.) So let’s give a couple more examples. How about what’s the word for wine? |
| Naomi: (slow) わいん (wain) (natural speed) ワイン (wain) |
| Peter: So how can we say what kind of wine? |
| Naomi: どんなワインですか。(Donna wain desu ka.) |
| Peter: Again どんな (donna) followed by |
| Naomi: Noun, wine. |
| Peter: And give us – you really want to hit the “n” in there. It’s どんな (donna) because we have three syllables in there. First one. |
| Naomi: ど (do) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Naomi: ん (n) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Naomi: な (na) |
| Peter: So どんな (donna) |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: All right. Next we have |
| Naomi: 高い (takai) |
| Peter: High, tall, expensive. |
| Naomi: (slow) たかい (takai) (natural speed) 高い (takai) |
| Peter: Now again this can – we got to use context here. If we are talking about a building, it means tall. |
| Naomi: 高い (takai) |
| Peter: Tall. So how can we say what’s the word for building? |
| Naomi: ビル (biru) |
| Peter: Short vowel in there. The drink that so many people like is a long vowel, ビール (bīru). |
| Naomi: ビール (bīru) |
| Peter: Here it's a short vowel. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: ビル (biru) and we can say the building is tall, which is |
| Naomi: あのビルは高いです。(Ano biru wa takai desu.) |
| Peter: That building is tall. |
| Naomi: That beer is expensive. |
| Peter: Ah which is the other meaning of 高い (takai)? How do we say that beer is expensive? |
| Naomi: あのビールは高い。(Ano bīru wa takai.) |
| Peter: Notice the long vowel in there ビール (bīru) that beer is expensive. All right, what do we have next? |
| Naomi: 財布 (saifu) |
| Peter: Wallet. |
| Naomi: (slow) さいふ (saifu) (natural speed) 財布 (saifu) |
| Peter: Next we have |
| Naomi: 素敵 (suteki) |
| Peter: Lovely, fantastic, cool and good looking. |
| Naomi: ちょっと「素敵」(chotto “suteki”) is a big word. So if you always use 素敵 (suteki) too much, that sounds bit strange. |
| Peter: But it can be used with so many situations. |
| Naomi: はい。素敵な人。(Hai. Suteki na hito.) |
| Peter: Yes, and this is a na-adjective. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Can you break it down? |
| Naomi: (slow) すてき (suteki) (natural speed) 素敵 (suteki) |
| Peter: Pitch accent here is |
| Naomi: Starts low and goes up at て (te) and stays high. |
| Peter: 素敵 (suteki) |
| Naomi: そうです。素敵 (Sō desu. suteki) |
| Peter: 素敵 (suteki) |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: What about for the other ones we just covered 財布 (saifu)? |
| Naomi: 財布 (saifu) |
| Peter: Going up. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: 財布 (saifu) |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: I hear it going up on the い (i). 財布 (saifu) |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: How about for あ (a), 高い (takai) starts low, high down. |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: 高い (takai) |
| Naomi: 高い (takai) |
| Peter: 高い (takai) |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: 高い (takai) |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: And how about どんな (donna), going up? |
| Naomi: It sounds almost like Madonna, どんな (donna). |
| Peter: どんな (donna) |
| Naomi: どんな (donna) starts with high, な (na) is low. |
| Peter: Okay, then we had a word we spoke about in the previous lesson which also means good looking, cool. That is |
| Naomi: 格好いい (kakkoii) (slow) かっこいい (kakkoii) (natural speed) 格好いい (kakkoii) |
| Peter: This word 格好 (kakkō) means appearance and it’s followed by いい (ii) which means good. So literally appearance good. Then we have |
| Naomi: 嬉しい (ureshii) |
| Peter: Happy. |
| Naomi: (slow) うれしい (ureshii) (natural speed) 嬉しい (ureshii) |
| Peter: And again low, high, low. 嬉しい (ureshii) |
| Naomi: 嬉しい (ureshii) |
| Peter: This is followed by a phrase |
| Naomi: どういたしまして (dōitashimashite) |
| Peter: You are welcome. |
| Naomi: (slow) どういたしまして (dōitashimashite) (natural speed) どういたしまして (dōitashimashite) |
| Peter: どう(dō) starts high, falls on the second syllable. |
| Naomi: どう (dō) (slow) どう (dō) |
| Peter: いたしまして (itashimashite) starts low, rises on the second syllable た (ta) falls on the second to last syllable |
| Naomi: し (shi) (slow) いたしまして (itashimashite) (natural speed) いたしまして (itashimashite) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: そう (sō) |
| Peter: That’s right or is that so. |
| Naomi: (slow) そう (sō) (natural speed) そう (sō) |
| Peter: Falls on the second syllable, う (u) |
| Naomi: そう (sō) |
| Peter: Okay Naomi-sensei, let’s have a look at the usage for some of these words. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: What word shall we start with? |
| Naomi: 高い (takai) |
| Peter: Expensive. |
| Naomi: Or |
| Peter: Tall. Two meanings and again it depends on the context. Let’s take a look at both meanings. First we have first sample sentence. |
| Naomi: これは高いワインです。(Kore wa takai wain desu.) |
| Peter: This is expensive wine. So here we are talking about wine. So the price of the wine. Now let’s have an example that refers to height. |
| Naomi: 富士山は高い山です。(Fuji-san wa takai yama desu.) |
| Peter: Mount Fuji is a high mountain. |
| Naomi: Yeah, we don’t have any difference between high and tall in Japanese. |
| Peter: Yeah, so we are on to three meanings now. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Because in English yeah, we wouldn’t say that’s a tall mountain, high mountain. |
| Naomi: Do you say high building? |
| Peter: No tall building. |
| Naomi: Ah so for me, the difference between high and tall is difficult. |
| Peter: Yeah but in Japanese, it’s easier because they are both 高い (takai). |
| Naomi: And expensive is 高い (takai). |
| Peter: So how can we say tall building? |
| Naomi: 高いビル (takai biru) |
| Peter: Tall building and just watch the pronunciation of the word ビル (biru) because if you hold the vowel, you wind up with. |
| Naomi: ビール (bīru) |
| Peter: And that’s beer. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Expensive ビールになっちゃいますね (bīru ni natchaimasu ne). 高いビール。(Takai bīru.) |
| Peter: Expensive beer. |
| Naomi: 高いビル (takai biru) |
| Peter: Tall building. |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: So I have an interesting story about this 高い (takai). So I was playing ice hockey here in Japan and I am from New York. So we played a little rough. So I checked this guy and he said to me, what I heard was お前、背が高い (omae, se ga takai). So he said to me, you, you are tall. So I said back to him because we were like the same height, I said お前も背が高い (omae mo se ga takai). You are tall too and he gave me this weird look because it didn’t really make sense why he was saying like you are tall. So I get back to the bench and my teammate turns to me and he says, he didn’t say 背が高い (se ga takai). He said チェックが高い (chekku ga takai), like I hit him high. |
| Naomi: Ah… |
| Peter: But anyway, the way to say you are tall is 背が高い (se ga takai). |
| Naomi: You are tall. No, you are tall. |
| Peter: Yeah, so hopefully this little story helps you remember another expression we can use with 高い (takai), 背が高い (se ga takai), meaning someone is tall. |
| Naomi: じゃあ (jā), when you play ice hockey, アイスホッケーをするときは、チェックが高いって言うんですか。(Aisu hokkē o suru toki wa, chekku ga takai tte iu n desu ka.) |
| Peter: Yeah, high check. So if he wanted to say that was a high check, |
| Naomi: チェック高いよ。(Chekku takai yo.) |
| Peter: That was it. |
| Naomi: ああ、そうなんだ。(Ā, sō nan da.) |
| Peter: But I heard something different. |
| Naomi: Okay. |
| Peter: He gave me a really strange look. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Okay, on to today’s grammar point or points. First we have |
| Naomi: どんな (donna) |
| Peter: どんな (donna) means what kind of and always precedes a noun. So we have どんな (donna) followed by a noun. What kind of something. For example |
| Naomi: どんな財布ですか。(Donna saifu desu ka.) |
| Peter: What kind of wallet is it? |
| Naomi: どんな傘ですか。(Donna kasa desu ka.) |
| Peter: What kind of umbrella is it? |
| Naomi: どんなワインですか。(Donna wain desu ka.) |
| Peter: What kind of wine is it? |
| Naomi: どんなビールですか。(Donna bīru desu ka.) |
| Peter: What kind of beer is it? |
| Naomi: どんなビルですか。(Donna biru desu ka.) |
| Peter: What kind of building is it? So you will get the pattern here. どんな (donna) followed by a noun. Grammar point one. Next grammar point is adjective modifying a noun as was introduced in the dialogue, we have an adjective preceding a noun in the word order. So let’s just take a look at some of the examples we had in today’s conversation. First we had |
| Naomi: 高い財布 (takai saifu) |
| Peter: Expensive wallet. Now again when we first hear 高い (takai), there is no way to know if it’s expensive or… |
| Naomi: High or tall. |
| Peter: Without knowing the context. So if you are talking on the phone and someone says 高い (takai), you have to wait for what comes next. Now if it’s a visual situation when you could see what’s being talked about, then it’s kind of very apparent but again the meaning comes from the context. This is an i-adjective. So when the i-adjective precedes a noun, it stays the same. Nothing changes. |
| Naomi: 格好いい財布 (kakkoii saifu) |
| Peter: Cool wallet, nice looking wallet. Again we just take the i-adjective and place it in front of the noun. Next we have |
| Naomi: Now it’s time for a challenge. |
| Peter: What challenge is that? |
| Naomi: な (na) ending adjectives. |
| Peter: Okay. We introduced these na-adjectives and here we are going to show you where the name comes from. Naomi-sensei, take it away. |
| Naomi: 素敵な財布 (suteki na saifu) |
| Peter: Good looking wallet. Now if you remember, the adjective for good looking is |
| Naomi: 素敵 (suteki) |
| Peter: The word for wallet is |
| Naomi: 財布 (saifu) |
| Peter: So in today’s dialogue, the word order is first we have the adjective |
| Naomi: 素敵 (suteki) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Naomi: 財布 (saifu) |
| Peter: Wallet but as 素敵 (suteki) is a na-adjective, we can’t just line them up. We need to put something in between and that is |
| Naomi: な (na) |
| Peter: Hence where we get the name na-adjective. So the phrase goes |
| Naomi: 素敵な財布です。(Suteki na saifu desu.) |
| Peter: There it is. The i-adjective can be placed directly in front of the noun without any change. The na-adjective needs a な (na) following it when placed in front of a noun. Let’s take a look at another example. |
| Naomi: 特別な財布 (tokubetsu na saifu) |
| Peter: Special wallet. ナオミ先生は特別な先生ですね。(Naomi-sensei wa tokubetsu na sensei desu ne.) |
| Naomi: うーん。ありがとうございます。(Ūn. Arigatō gozaimasu.) |
| Peter: Yes, I am very used to this with Sakura and Natsuko, yes. |
| Naomi: We are so Japanese. |
| Peter: Yeah Yoshi, Yoshi used to really like that. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) それから (sorekara), English adjectives are treated as na-adjectives. |
| Peter: And exponentially increase your vocabulary because |
| Naomi: ゴージャスな財布 (gōjasu na saifu) |
| Peter: Gorgeous wallet. I mean knowing this, you can take most English adjectives slap a な (na) at the end and use them in front of nouns. |
| Naomi: そうですね、多いですね。スペシャルなイベント (Sō desu ne, ōi desu ne. supesharu na ibento) |
| Peter: Special event. |
| Naomi: キュートな人 (kyūto na hito) |
| Peter: Cute person. |
| Naomi: マニアックな人 (maniakku na hito) |
| Peter: A really exuberant person. So it doesn’t have that in English maniac kind of has – it’s like kind of a negative nuance to it but in Japanese, this nuance isn’t as severe. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) マニアック (maniakku) is – we can use maniac for the – who are really into something. |
| Peter: Kind of a bit different than the English version of the maniac on the news. Wanted in 30 states. Yeah, you got to watch out for that nuance there. Now again, we are introducing you to an additional pattern and we want to stress additional. Up until now, we’ve been introducing you to this AはBです (ē wa bī desu). Topic followed by は (wa) followed by adjective followed by です (desu). And you can use this pattern too. This is just an additional pattern that you can use and is used quite often. And we are just going to give you side by side here using the 高い財布 (takai saifu). Can we have both patterns? |
| Naomi: これは高い財布です。(Kore wa takai saifu desu.) |
| Peter: This is an expensive wallet; and the word order is quite similar to English - this expensive wallet. And of course just the verb is what’s different here. Then we also have. |
| Naomi: この財布は高いです。(Kono saifu wa takai desu.) |
| Peter: This wallet is expensive; and again quite similar - This wallet expensive is. Almost identical but again we just want to stress here that both – this is just an additional pattern in addition to your linguistic toolbox. So just something else. |
Outro |
| Peter: All right, so that is going to do for today. |
| Naomi: じゃあ、また。(Jā, mata.) |
| DIALOGUE |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : ない。私の財布！ない！(Nai. Watashi no saifu! Nai!) |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : どんな財布ですか。(Donna saifu desu ka.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : 高い財布です。イタリアのデザイナーの財布です。とても素敵な財布です。(Takai saifu desu. Itaria no dezainā no saifu desu. Totemo suteki na saifu desu.) |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : あれですか。(Are desu ka.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : あー！そうです！私の財布です。うれしい！ありがとう。春人！(Ā! Sō desu! Watashi no saifu desu. Ureshii! Arigatō. Haruhito!) |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : どういたしまして。とても格好いい財布ですね。(Dōitashimashite. Totemo kakkoii saifu desu ne.) |
| 南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : ない！私の傘！ない！(Nai! Watashi no kasa! Nai!) |
| 東 春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : 夏見さんの傘はどんな傘ですか。(Natsumi-san no kasa wa donna kasa desu ka.) |
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