Japanese:Adjectives

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日本語 Japanese
Family	Sub-family	Language of	Script
Japonic	Japanese	Japan , Palau	Kanji Hiragana Katakana

Japanese adjectives, like most other things Japanese, are slightly different to your everyday language. Japanese adjectives do not agree in Gender, Number or anything silly like that, but Japanese Adjectives can conjugate/decline similar to verbs into Negative, Past, Conditional and all combinations in between.

Classes of Japanese Adjectives

Like verbs, there are two types of Japanese Adjectives, they are: na-adjectives and i-adjectives. It is normally very easy to tell the difference immediately, even when declined/conjugated because they do so differently. When you have your basic adjective, I-Adjectives tend to end in い / i, while NA-Adjectives don't have a common ending. I have provided a table of sample adjectives for you below. Note that there is one or two adjectives when written with English letters that do end in -i, however when written in Kanji it does not end in Hiragana い as the rest of the I-Adjectives do, so be careful with that one.

I-Adjective (Kanji)	I-Adjective (Romaji)	English	NA-Adjective (Kanji)	NA-Adjective (Romaji)	English
美しい	utsukushii	beautiful	綺麗（な）	kirei(na)	beautiful, clean
煩い	urusai	noisy	静か（な）	shizuka(na)	quiet
詰まらない	tsumaranai	tedious, dull	賑やか（な）	nigiyaka(na)	lively, busy
丸い	marui	circular	四角（な）	shikaku(na)	square
危ない	abunai	dangerous	有名（な）	yuumei(na)	famous

Full Conjugation Examples

Below is a table illustrating all the forms of adjectives. I have used the examples of 有名 / yuumei / famous (NA-Adjective) and 遅い / osoi / slow (I-Adjective)

	Affirmative	Negative	Affirmative	Negative
	有名 / yuumei / famous (NA-Adjective)		遅い / osoi / slow (I-Adjective)
Non-past	有名(な)	有名じゃない	遅い	遅くない
Past	有名だった	有名じゃなかった	遅かった	遅くなかった
Adverb	有名に	有名じゃなく	遅く	遅くなく
Te Form	有名で	有名じゃなくて	遅くて	遅くなくて
Conditional	有名だったら	有名じゃなかったら	遅かったら	遅くなかったら

NA-Adjectives

NA-Adjectives are normally treated as nouns as you will see later.

When they go directly before the noun, you need to put な / na between the adjective and verb (occasionally it is の / no instead, it is normally marked in dictionaries as adj-na or adj-no).
Examples:

静かな所
shizuka-na tokoro
a quiet place

綺麗な女の人
kirei-na onnna no hito
a beautiful/clean/pretty woman

When using the NA-Adjectives with the particle が / ga , you do not need to include な / na.
Examples:

所が静か
tokoro-ga shizuka
place thats quiet

女の人が綺麗
onna no hito-ga kirei
woman who is beautiful/clean/pretty

Another thing to note, is when speaking with the plain form copula だ, you are allowed to say [object]が[na-adjective]だ unlike I-Adjectives.

Past NA-Adjectives

Heres one of the odd things about Japanese adjectives. The ability to form a past tense. With NA-Adjectives however, because they are mostly treated like nouns, they simply receive the ending だった/でした datta/deshita. Theres not really a lot to explain here, but I shall give some sample sentences putting the past adjectives into context.
Examples:

その所は静かだったんですね。
sono tokoro wa shizuka dattan desu ne.
Gosh, that place was quiet wasn't it?

試験が簡単でした。
shiken ga kantan deshita.
The test was easy.

Another possibility is to reverse the word order and use な / na.
Examples:

それは静かな所だったんですね。
sore wa shizuka-na tokoro deshita ne.
Gosh, that was a quiet place wasn't it?

簡単な試験でした。
kantan-na shiken deshita.
It was an easy test.

Negative NA-Adjectives

Japanese adjectives can also be put into a "Negative" form. NA-Adjectives simply take じゃない/ではない/ではありません janai/dewanai/dewaarimasen to form negative form.
Examples:

その所は静かじゃないんですね。
sono tokoro wa shizuka janain desu ne.
Gosh, that place isn't quiet is it?

試験が簡単ではありません。
shiken ga kantan dewaarimasen.
The test is not easy.

You can also form Negative Past form using the negative suffix into normal past form. That is: じゃなかった/ではなかった/ではありませんでした janakatta/dewanakatta/dewaarimasendeshita.
Examples:

その所は静かじゃなかったんですね。
sono tokoro wa shizuka janakattan desu ne.
Gosh, that place was not quiet was it?

試験が簡単ではありませんでした。
shiken ga kantan dewaarimasendeshita.
The test was not easy.

Adverbs from NA-Adjectives

NA-Adjectives can also be turned into Adverbs. These in English are the things that describe the verb. To form an Adverb from a NA-Adjective you simply need to add に / ni to the end of the adjective. (NOTE: These are Open-class adverbs)
Examples:

静かに歩いて下さい!
shizuka-ni aruite kudasai!
Please walk quietly

簡単に説明して下さい。
kantan-ni setsumei shite kudasai.
Please explain it simply (in an easy manner)

Listing NA-Adjectives

Listing NA-Adjectives uses the Te Form of adjectives. For this for NA-Adjectives, we need to add the particle で / de after each adjective minus the last.
Examples:

静かで綺麗な所ですね
shizuka-de kirei-na tokoro desu ne.
It is a quiet and beautiful place is it not?

I-Adjectives

I-Adjectives are normally treated as verbs as you will see later.

No matter whether you are using the adjective before the noun, or whether you are using が / ga, I-Adjectives will always end in い / i in the present simple.
Examples:

近い所 chikai tokoro (a nearby place)
美しい女の人 utsukushii onnna no hito (a beautiful woman)

所が近かい
tokoro-ga chikai
place thats nearby

女の人が美しい
onna no hito-ga utsukushii
woman who is beautiful

Another thing to note, is when speaking with the plain form copula だ, you are not allowed to say [object]が[i-adjective]だ unlike NA-Adjectives. It is, however, okay to say the following.

Examples:

犬は大きい。
inu wa ookii.
The dog is big

犬は大きいです。
inu wa ookii desu.
The dog is big

Past I-Adjectives

I-Adjectives in Japanese conjugate similar to verbs. To form a past tense adjective:

Remove the -い -i ending
Add +かった +katta.

Using the above examples:
Examples:

近かった所
chikakatta tokoro
place that was nearby

美しかった女の人
utsukushikatta onnna no hito
woman who was beautiful

Examples:

所が近かかった
tokoro-ga chikakatta
place that was nearby

女の人が美しかった
onna no hito-ga utsukushikatta
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Negative I-Adjectives

I-Adjectives in Japanese conjugate similar to verbs. To form a negative adjective:

Remove the -い -i ending
Add +くない +kunai.

Examples using the above:
Examples:

近くない所
chikakunai tokoro
place that is not nearby

美しくない女の人
utsukushikunai onnna no hito
woman who is not beautiful

Examples:

所が近かくない
tokoro-ga chikakunai
place that is not nearby

女の人が美しくない
onna no hito-ga utsukushikunai
woman who is not beautiful

Similarly to the NA-Adjectives, you can form Past Negative adjectives from the Negative forms. To do this:

From Negative form:
- Remove the -い -i ending
- Add +かった +katta.

From Present form:
- Remove the -い -i ending
- Add +くなかった +kunakatta.

Examples:

近くなかった所
chikakunakatta tokoro
place that was not nearby

美しくなかった女の人
utsukushikunakatta onnna no hito
woman who was not beautiful

Examples:

所が近かくなかった
tokoro-ga chikakunakatta
place that was not nearby

女の人が美しくなかった
onna no hito-ga utsukushikunakatta
woman who was not beautiful

Conditional I-Adjectives

There are also such thing as conditional adjectives in Japanese. I-Adjectives form this in two ways:

For -BA forms:
- Remove the -い -i ending
- Add +ければ +kereba.
For -TARA forms:
- Remove the -い -i ending
- Add +かったら +kattara.

Conditional adjectives can not be placed before the noun, they must always follow with the use of が / ga.

Examples:

所が近かければ
tokoro-ga chikakereba
if the place is nearby

女の人が美しければ
onna no hito-ga utsukushikereba
if the woman is beautiful

Examples:

所が近かかったら
tokoro-ga chikakattara
if the place is nearby

女の人が美しかったら
onna no hito-ga utsukushikattara
if the woman is beautiful

Similarly a Negative Conditional can be formed.

From Negative form:
- For -BA forms:
  - Remove the -い -i ending
  - Add +かったら +kattara.
- For -TARA forms:
  - Remove the -い -i ending
  - Add +ければ +kereba.

From Present form:
- For -BA forms:
  - Remove the -い -i ending
  - Add +くなければ +kunakereba.
- For -TARA forms:
  - Remove the -い -i ending
  - Add +くなかったら +kunakattara.

Examples:

所が近かくなければ
tokoro-ga chikakunakereba
if the place is not nearby

女の人が美しくなければ
onna no hito-ga utsukushikunakereba
if the woman is not beautiful

Examples:

所が近かくなかったら
tokoro-ga chikakunakattara
if the place is not nearby

女の人が美しくなかったら
onna no hito-ga utsukushikunakattara
if the woman is not beautiful

NOTE: なければ nakereba can be shortened colloquially to なきゃ nakya.

Adverbs from I-Adjectives

I-Adjectives can also be turned into Adverbs (All Open-class). These in English are the things that describe the verb. To form an Adverb from a I-Adjective:

Remove the -い -i ending
Add +く +ku.

Examples:

速く終わった
hayaku owatta.
I finished quickly.

優しく手伝った
yasashiku tetsudatta.
He kindly helped.

Listing I-Adjectives

Listing NA-Adjectives uses the Te Form of adjectives. For this for NA-Adjectives:

Remove the -い -i ending
Add +くて +kute.

Examples:

面白くて楽しい旅行だった。
omoshirokute tanoshii ryokou datta
It was an interesting and fun trip.

Nominal I-Adjectives

I-Adjectives can also be turned into nouns. This is similar to the suffix -ness in English. To do this:

Remove the -い -i ending
Add +さ +sa.

Examples:

A:
貴方の犬の大きさはどのぐらいですか。
anata no inu no ookisa wa dono gurai desu ka.
How big is your dog? (Literally: About how much is your dogs bigness/size)

B:
とても大きいですよ！
totemo ookii desu yo!
He/she is very big!

Become ...er

To express something "becoming ...er" in Japanese, the adverbial form is used together with the word なる/なります naru/narimasu (to become). The adverbial forms of both NA-Adjectives and I-Adjectives can be found on this page.

Examples:

犬は大きいです。
inu wa ookii desu.
The dog is big.

犬は大きくなりました。
inu wa ookiku narimashita.
The dog has gotten/become bigger.

Examples:

日本語が上手です。
nihongo ga jouzu desu.
You are good at Japanese.

日本語が上手になりました。
nihongo ga jozu-ni narimashita.
You have gotten/become better at Japanese.

Japanese pages
Introduction · Adjectives （形容詞） · Auxiliaries （助辞） · Emphatics （語尾） · Euphony （音便） · Kana （仮名） · Kanji （漢字）: Comparisons (漢字の比べ） · Loanwords （伝来語） · Numbers （数詞） · Te Form （テ形） · Time (時間） · Particles （助詞） · Verbs （動詞）: Example （動詞の例） · Lexicon

From WikiLang

Contents

Classes of Japanese Adjectives

Full Conjugation Examples

NA-Adjectives

Past NA-Adjectives

Negative NA-Adjectives

Adverbs from NA-Adjectives

Listing NA-Adjectives

I-Adjectives

Past I-Adjectives

Negative I-Adjectives

Conditional I-Adjectives

Adverbs from I-Adjectives

Listing I-Adjectives

Nominal I-Adjectives

Become ...er