Adjectives

漢字「かんじ」- Kanji

静 JLPT N3 Grade 4: quiet; Kun: しず-、しず・か、しず・まる、しず・める; On: セイ、ジョウ
人 JLPT N5 Grade 1: person; Kun: ひと、 -り、 -と; On: ジン、ニン
友 JLPT N5 Grade 2: friend; Kun: とも; On: ユウ
達 JLPT N3 Grade 4: accomplished, reach, arrive, attain; Kun: -たち; On: タツ、ダ
親 JLPT N4 Grade 2: parent, intimacy, relative, familiarity, dealer (cards); Kun: おや、おや-、した・しい、した・しむ; On: シン
切 JLPT N4 Grade 2: cut, cutoff, be sharp; Kun: き・る、 -き・る、き・り、 -き・り、 -ぎ・り、き・れる、 -き・れる、き・れ、 -き・れ、 -ぎ・れ; On: セツ、サイ
魚 JLPT N4 Grade 2: fish; Kun: うお、さかな、 -ざかな; On: ギョ
好 JLPT N3 Grade 4: fond, pleasing, like something; Kun: この・む、す・く、よ・い、い・い; On: コウ
肉 JLPT N4 Grade 2: meat; Kun: しし; On: ニク
野 JLPT N4 Grade 2: plains, field, rustic, civilian life; Kun: の、の-; On: ヤ、ショ
菜 JLPT N2 Grade 4: vegetable, side dish, greens; Kun: な; On: サイ
嫌 JLPT N1 Grade 6-8: dislike, detest, hate; Kun: きら・う、きら・い、いや; On: ケン、ゲン
食 JLPT N5 Grade 2: eat, food; Kun: く・う、く・らう、た・べる、は・む; On: ショク、ジキ
物 JLPT N4 Grade 3: thing, object, matter; Kun: もの、もの-; On: ブツ、モツ
高 JLPT N5 Grade 2: tall, high, expensive; Kun: たか・い、たか、 -だか、たか・まる、たか・める; On: コウ
値 JLPT N3 Grade 6: price, cost, value; Kun: ね、あたい; On: チ
段 JLPT N3 Grade 6: grade, steps, stairs; On: ダン、タン
彼 JLPT N3 Grade 6-8: he, that, the; Kun: かれ、かの、か・の; On: ヒ

言葉「ことば」- Vocabulary

静か(しず・か) na-adj: quiet
人(ひと): person
きれい na-adj: pretty; clean
友達(とも・だち): friend
親切(しん・せつ) na-adj: kind
魚(さかな): fish
好き(す・き) na-adj: likable; desirable
肉(にく): meat
野菜(や・さい): vegetables
嫌い(きら・い) na-adj: distasteful, hateful
食べ物(た・べ・もの): food
おいしい i-adj: tasty
高い(たか・い) i-adj: high; tall; expensive
ビル(bi ru): building
値段(ね・だん): price
レストラン(re su to ra n): restaurant
あまりあんまり: not very (when used with negative)
いい i-adj: good
彼(かれ): he; boyfriend
かっこいい i-adj: cool; handsome

Properties of Adjectives

Now that we can connect two nouns together in various ways using particles, we want to describe our nouns with adjectives. An adjective can directly modify a noun that immediately follows it. It can also be connected in the same way we did with nouns using particles. All adjectives fall under two categories: na-adjectives and i-adjectives.

The na-adjective

The na-adjective is very simple to learn because it acts essentially like a noun. All the conjugation rules for both nouns and na-adjectives are the same. One main difference is that a na-adjective can directly modify a noun following it by sticking な between the adjective and noun. (Hence the name, na-adjective.)

Example 1

静か(しず・か)な人(ひと)。
Quiet person.
きれいな人(ひと)。
Pretty person.

You can also use adjectives with particles just like we did in the last lesson with nouns.

Example 2

友達(とも・だち)は親切(しん・せつ)。
Friend is kind.
友達(とも・だち)は親切(しん・せつ)な人(ひと)だ。
Friend is kind person.

As shown by the following examples, the conjugation rules for na-adjectives are the same as nouns.

Example 3

ボブ(bo bu)は魚(さかな)が好き(す・き)だ。
Bob likes fish.
ボブ(bo bu)は魚(さかな)が好き(す・き)じゃない。
Bob does not like fish.
ボブ(bo bu)は魚(さかな)が好き(す・き)だった。
Bob liked fish.
ボブ(bo bu)は魚(さかな)が好き(す・き)じゃなかった。
Bob did not like fish.

If it bothers you that “like” is an adjective and not a verb in Japanese, you can think of 好き(す・き) as meaning “desirable”. Also, you can see a good example of the topic and identifier particle working in harmony. The sentence is about the topic “Bob” and “fish” identifies specifically what Bob likes.

You can also use the last three conjugations to directly modify the noun. (Remember to attach な for positive non-past tense.)

Example 4

魚(さかな)が好き(す・き)な人(ひと)。
Person that likes fish.
魚(さかな)が好き(す・き)じゃない人(ひと)。
Person that does not like fish.
魚(さかな)が好き(す・き)だった人(ひと)。
Person that liked fish.
魚(さかな)が好き(す・き)じゃなかった人(ひと)。
Person that did not like fish.

Here, the entire clause 魚(さかな)が好き(す・き)、魚(さかな)が好き(す・き)じゃない、etc. is modifying “person” to talk about people that like or dislike fish. You can see why this type of sentence is useful because 人(ひと)は魚(さかな)が好き(す・き)だ would mean “People like fish”, which isn’t always the case.

We can even treat the whole descriptive noun clause as we would a single noun. For instance, we can make the whole clause a topic like the following example.

Example 5

魚(さかな)が好き(す・き)じゃない人(ひと)は、肉(にく)が好き(す・き)だ。
Person who does not like fish like meat.
魚(さかな)が好き(す・き)な人(ひと)は、野菜(や・さい)も好き(す・き)だ。
Person who likes fish also likes vegetables.

The i-adjective

All i-adjectives always end in the Hiragana character: い. However, you may have noticed that some na-adjectives also end in い such as きれい（な）. So how can you tell the difference? There are actually very few na-adjectives that end with い that is usually not written in Kanji. Two of the most common include: きれい and 嫌い(きら・い). Almost all other na-adjectives that end in ""い are usually written in Kanji and so you can easily tell that it’s not an i-adjective. For instance, きれい written in Kanji looks like ""綺麗(き・れい) or 奇麗(き・れい). Since the ""い part of ""麗(れい) is part of a Kanji character, you know that it can’t be an i-adjective. That’s because the whole point of the い in i-adjectives is to allow conjugation without changing the Kanji. In fact, 嫌い(きら・い) is one of the rare na-adjectives that ends in い without a Kanji. This has to do with the fact that 嫌い(きら・い) is actually derived from the verb 嫌う(きら・う).

Unlike na-adjectives, you do not need to add な to directly modify a noun with an i-adjective.

Example 1

嫌い(きら・い)な食べ物(た・べ・もの)。
Hated food.
おいしい食べ物(た・べ・もの)。
Tasty food.

Remember how the negative state-of-being for nouns also ended in い（じゃない）? Well, just like the negative state-of-being for nouns, you can never attach the declarative だ to i-adjectives.

Caution

Do NOT attach だ to i-adjectives.

Now that we got that matter cleared up, below are the rules for conjugating i-adjectives. Notice that the rule for conjugating to negative past tense is the same as the rule for the past tense.

Conjugation rules for i-adjectives

Negative: First remove the trailing い from the i-adjective and then attach くない

Example:

高(たか)い → 高(たか)くない

Past-tense: First remove the trailing い from the i-adjective or negative i-adjective and then attach かった

Examples:

高(たか)い → 高(たか)かった
高(たか)くない → 高(たか)くなかった

	Positive	Negative
Non-Past	高い	高くない
Past	高かった	高くなかった

Summary of i-adjective conjugations

Example 2

高い(たか・い)ビル(bi ru)。
Tall building.
高(たか)くないビル(bi ru)。
Not tall building.
高(たか)かったビル(bi ru)。
Building that was tall.
高(たか)くなかったビル(bi ru)。
Building that was not tall.

Note that you can make the same type of descriptive noun clause as we have done with na-adjectives. The only difference is that we don’t need な to directly modify the noun.

Example 3

値段(ね・だん)が高い(たか・い)レストラン(re su to ra n)はあまり好き(す・き)じゃない。
Don’t like high price restaurants very much.

In this example, the descriptive clause 値段(ね・だん)が高い(たか・い) is directly modifying レストラン(re su to ra n).

An annoying exception

There is one i-adjective meaning “good” that acts slightly differently from all other i-adjectives. This is a classic case of how learning Japanese is harder for beginners because the most common and useful words also have the most exceptions. The word for “good” was originally ""よい（良い(よい)）. However, with time, it soon became ""いい. When it is written in Kanji, it is usually read as よい so いい is almost always Hiragana. That’s all fine and good. Unfortunately, all the conjugations are still derived from よい and not いい. This is shown in the next table.

Another adjective that acts like this is かっこいい because it is an abbreviated version of two words merged together: 格好 and いい. Since it uses the same いい, you need to use the same conjugations.

	Positive	Negative
Non-Past	いい	よくない
Past	よかった	よくなかった

Conjugation for いい

	Positive	Negative
Non-Past	かっこいい	かっこよくない
Past	かっこよかった	かっこよくなかった

Conjugation for かっこいい

Take care to make all the conjugations from よい not いい.

Examples

値段(ね・だん)があんまりよくない。
Price isn’t very good.
彼(かれ)はかっこよかった！
He looked really cool!