Semester 2 Week 4 Part A

Konnichiwa Minasan!

Introduction

Today we'll be looking at 'な Adjectives' otherwise known as 'Adjectival Noun'.
な = Is Hiragana for the sound 'Na'

な Adjectives

How do we tell if it is a true or な adjective? True adjectives always end in ai, ii, ui, oi.
So if the adjective doesn't end with any of the above, it must be a な adjective.

How To Use

Okay so lets learn how to use な adjectives. Our example is going to be 'Beautiful Sea'
Beautiful = Kirei
Sea = Umi

We must add the な before the noun when using な Adjectives

So to say 'Beautiful Sea' we must say 'Kirei な Umi'

If the な  adjective does not come before a noun, for example, Kireide Ookii Umi = Beautiful and Big Sea.
Ookii = Big

Joining Two Adjectives

You may have noticed the 'de' at the end of 'kireide' in that sentence, this is because if there is a True Adjective OR a な adjective after a な adjective we must add de. This is how we use multiple adjectives in a sentence.

However, if the True Adjective came before the な Adjective, for example, 'Ookikute Kirei な Umi' we do not use 'De' instead we drop the last 'i' from Ookii and add 'kute' onto it making it 'Ookikute'. You'll also see that since Kirei is now the word before the noun it must have な placed afterwards.

Joining Three or More Adjectives

When using multiple adjectives in a sentence the rules for joining adjectives does not apply to the last adjective used. You can see this in the examples above. If there are three or more adjectives in a row for example. 'Karakute Kireide Ookii umi' = Salty, beautiful, big sea. Karai = Salty.
Notice that Ookii uses it's normal form as it is the last adjective and does not need to be Ookikute.

END

Well, that's it for today! I hope you learnt something new and it was easy enough to follow.
Please use the sharing buttons below to let other people know about these lessons!

Semester 2 Week 3 Part A

Hello everyone,

Welcome to week 3. This lesson we're going to talk about adjectives.

Japanese has two types of adjectives.
1. True Adjective
2. Adjectival Noun (sometimes called Na な Adjectives)

True Adjectives

First we're going to look at True Adjectives

True Adjectives finish with Ai, ii, ui, oi

Changing True Adjectives to Present, Past, Negative, Affirmative

'i' = い	Present	Past
Affirmative	Remains the same.	Drop the last 'i'. Add 'Katta'
Negative	Drop the last 'i'. Add 'Kunai'	Drop the last 'i'. Add 'Kunakatta'

NOTE: いい (ii) = Good in English. いい is irregular. Do not follow the rules set in the above table.

'Good' = いい	Present	Past
Affirmative	いい Remains the same.	いい Becomes 'Yokatta'
Negative	いい Becomes 'Yokuna'	いい Becomes 'Yokunakatta'

Remember: Add 'desu' onto True Adjective sentences to be polite. It does not matter if True Adjective is past or present tense, just leave Desu.

Example sentence using True Adjective - 'Yasashii' which means Easy
Japanese: Nihongo wa yasashikunai desu
English: Japanese language is not easy.

Let's break it down...
1. Nihongo = Japanese (language)
2. wa = particle marking topic of sentence
3. Yasashikunai = 'Present Negative' (Is Not) form of Yasashi. Yasashi = Easy
4. Desu = 'is'

I'll leave you all with some True Adjectives.
Muzukashii = Difficult
Omoshiroi = Interesting/Funny
Tanoshii = Fun
Tsumaranai = Boring
Ookii = Big
Chisai = Small
Sukunanai = Few, little
Ooi = Many, a large number of

END

Remember when you're looking up Japanese adjectives you can tell if it's a True Adjective by seeing if it ends in Ai, ii, ui, oi. Adjectival Nouns otherwise called な Adjectives do not have these endings. We'll learn the rules on how to use Adjectival Nouns and how to join both True and な adjectives together.

I hope you all found this lesson enjoyable!

If you found this post interesting please share it with your friends. There's the option to share this on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and even email it just below this post. Thanks!