Adjectives in Japanese

[tandakku]

I'm a first year (or semester) learning Japanese. The structure is confusing me- it's so different from English.

An adjective in a Japanese sentence, like for a sentence like this:

That duck is pretty.

Would be:

Sore ahiru kirei desu.

Or: Sore Kirei na ahiru imasu.

See? I have it all messed up.

[Amesaurus]

Well, think of something along the lines of

Sono inu wa kirei desu ne
That dog is pretty, isn't it?

I remember I had this in something I saved


In -na adjectives, the -na ending is used when the adjective modifies a noun, but not when it's used as a predicate. The past and negative cases are formed as they usually are in Japanese. Thus:

Kireina kimono (pretty kimono)
Kimono wa kirei desu ([your] kimono is pretty)
Kimono wa kirei dewa arimasen or
Kimono wa kirei ja nai desu ([your] kimono is not pretty)
Kimono wa kirei deshita ([your] kimono was pretty)
Kimono wa kirei dewa arimasendeshita or
Kimono wa kirei ja nakatta desu ([your] kimono was not pretty)

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by tandakku

I'm a first year (or semester) learning Japanese. The structure is confusing me- it's so different from English.

An adjective in a Japanese sentence, like for a sentence like this:

That duck is pretty.

Would be:

Sore ahiru kirei desu.

Or: Sore Kirei na ahiru imasu.

See? I have it all messed up.

You're not too messed up.
The first one sounds like "There, duck, it's pretty." The second sounds like "There, there is a pretty duck."

Both are missing particles, but both are acceptable uses of adjectives.

ホラ、アヒルはきれいです。Look, the duck is pretty.
それはきれいなアヒルです。That is a pretty duck.

[robhol]

There are two kinds of adjectives, true and false (pseudo-adjectives).
True adjectives end in -i whereas false adjectives... well, don't necessarily. However, it is possible for pseudo-adjectives to end in -i also.

True adjectives include words like kawaii, muzukashii (cute and difficult)
Hen, heta, kantan (weird, bad (as in unskilled, not "a bad person") and simple) are examples of false adjectives. Aside from the pretty obvious -i ending the main difference is that pseudos need "na" between the adjective and the noun to make sense.

You can say "kawaii neko desu", but not "hen hito". The proper version of the latter would be "hen na hito."

And if anything needs any additions or corrections, please come with them. I'm still pretty new in the game myself, but I think this should be about right. I hope I haven't made any glaring mistakes here, that could be a little embarrassing.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by robhol

There are two kinds of adjectives, true and false (pseudo-adjectives).
True adjectives end in -i whereas false adjectives... well, don't?

True adjectives include words like kawaii, muzukashii (cute and difficult)
Hen, heta, kantan (weird, bad (as in unskilled, not "a bad person") and simple) are examples of false adjectives. Aside from the pretty obvious -i ending the main difference is that pseudos need "na" between the adjective and the noun to make sense.

You can say "kawaii neko desu", but not "hen hito". The proper version of the latter would be "hen na hito."

And if anything needs any additions or corrections, please come with them. I'm still pretty new in the game myself, but I think this should be about right. I hope I haven't made any glaring mistakes here, that could be a little embarrassing.

You were linguistically correct, but I fear your description of な adjectives as "false" adjectives could confuse him, since pretty much every textbook on the planet will call them both adjectives.

I think it's just linguists who say "false adjective."

[robhol]

Well, that's good to know. As for the true/false thing, I'm only repeating what I've heard/read elsewhere, (damn knows I'm no linguist ) but I see your point. I suppose "-i and na adjectives" describes them just as well.

[chryuop]

Originally Posted by robhol

Well, that's good to know. As for the true/false thing, I'm only repeating what I've heard/read elsewhere, (damn knows I'm no linguist ) but I see your point. I suppose "-i and na adjectives" describes them just as well.

Another thing, it is not really correct to say that i-adjectives finish in i since there are many na adjective that finish in i as well. Unfortunately the OP hasn't tackled yet the kana and still writes with western characters. This will make for him much harder to recognize what adjective is what.
Anyway so that the OP can understand a little bit better here a very short description.

i-adjectives: are a kind of adjective that behave just like a verb. They do not require the verb "to be" to have a proper grammar use, but they can end the phrase as stand-alone. They get conjugated like verbs to obtain past, negative, conditional etc. They terminate with a i-kana character and they can be put directly before a noun in order to work as atttribute of the noun itself. This adjective can be conjugated also in its attributive form.
Examples:
kuruma ha shiroi (the car is white)
kuruma ha shirokatta (the car was white)
kuruma ha shirokunai (the car was white)
shiroi kuruma (the white car)
shirokatta kuruma (the car that was white)
shirokunai kuruma (the car that is not white)

na-adjectives: all the ones that are not i-adejctives (there are some that have the same ending of an i-adejective, for which a dictionary will help). These adjectives do require the verb "to be" to have a proper grammar use. When they are used before a noun in their attributive form you have to add a na-kana syllable to link it to the name. I am not sure if it is correctly explaining it like this, but I see that "na" a modification of the verb to be "da". So to conjugate the attributive form, just conjugate the verb "to be".
Examples:
heya ha kirei da (the room is clean)
heya ha kirei datta (the room was clean)
heya ha kirei dehanai (the room is not clean)
kirei na heya (the clean room)
kirei datta heya (the room that was clean)
kirei dehanai heya (the room that is not clean)


P.S. I need to add that once you learn these adjective well in their attributive form, you will have a very easy job in the future. You can see the attributive use of adjective as forms of "relative clause" in Japanese. When you will find a phrase like "the man who drank the wine" you will treat the "who drank the wine" just like an attributive adjective.

[WoHenNi]

If it's any help, I can explain the difference between ~な and　～い adjectives the way my teacher explained it to me!

～い Adjective: You guessed it. These end in ～い. If you want to change an ～い adjective to a negative, you remove the い and replace it with くない. For example -- 高い (Takai/Tall or Expensive) becomes　高くない (Takakunai/Not tall or Inexpensive). People have already gone into how to say it was not or it used to be, so I won't re-hash. MOVING ON!

~な Adjective: These ones are tricky. There is a simple way to deal with them. Pay attention -- The ~な adjectives usually end in an え sound...　け、て、め etc. Ke, Te, Me etc. BUT, BUT, BUT! There are some tricky ~な adjectives that have an ～い at the end. So whenever you see an adjective, ALWAYS look at the letter BEFORE the ～い to see if it's an え sound. If you find an adjective (for example KiReI), look before the ～い and if you see the え sound is れ　and it is a ~な adjective.

Hope this helps! D:

I'm generally bad at explaining.

[chryuop]

Originally Posted by WoHenNi

If it's any help, I can explain the difference between ~な and　～い adjectives the way my teacher explained it to me!

～い Adjective: You guessed it. These end in ～い. If you want to change an ～い adjective to a negative, you remove the い and replace it with くない. For example -- 高い (Takai/Tall or Expensive) becomes　高くない (Takakunai/Not tall or Inexpensive). People have already gone into how to say it was not or it used to be, so I won't re-hash. MOVING ON!

~な Adjective: These ones are tricky. There is a simple way to deal with them. Pay attention -- The ~な adjectives usually end in an え sound...　け、て、め etc. Ke, Te, Me etc. BUT, BUT, BUT! There are some tricky ~な adjectives that have an ～い at the end. So whenever you see an adjective, ALWAYS look at the letter BEFORE the ～い to see if it's an え sound. If you find an adjective (for example KiReI), look before the ～い and if you see the え sound is れ　and it is a ~な adjective.

Hope this helps! D:

I'm generally bad at explaining.

べんり benri
ふくざつ fukuzatsu
いじわる ijiwaru
びんぼう binbou
しんせつ shinsetsu
ばか baka
Why na adjective usually finish with e? Unless I misunderstood, in that case sorry.

P.S. I forgot to mention there are a very few that are both i and na adjectives.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by chryuop

べんり benri
ふくざつ fukuzatsu
いじわる ijiwaru
びんぼう binbou
しんせつ shinsetsu
ばか baka
Why na adjective usually finish with e? Unless I misunderstood, in that case sorry.

P.S. I forgot to mention there are a very few that are both i and na adjectives.

I was about to say the same thing. There are hundreds (maybe thousands) that end in か／た／あ／など!