Quick-How-To Japanese Adjective Conjugation
Quick-How-To Japanese Adjective Conjugation
Quick-How-To Japanese Adjective Conjugation
This is a companion page to the Quick-How-To for Japanese verb conjugation. This is a compilation of information from many places. Hope it helps.... good luck
Common I-Adjectives
akarui bright nagai oishii omai ooi atatakai atsui warm hot osoi ookii long delicious
akai
atarashii
red
new
sweet many
late, slow big
omoi
chikai chiisai furui hayai hikui near small old early, quick low omoshiroi
heavy
interesting, funny
hiroi
ii isogashii
spacious
good busy
kibishi kitanai
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strict dirty
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strong boring
bad young noisy
light cloudy
dark short bad tasting
umaranai
warui wakai urusai
utsui
yasashii yasui
thin
easy cheap
mushiatsui humid
muzukashii difficult
yowai
weak
Common Na-Adjectives
adayakana
anzenna benrina
calm
safe convenient kikenna kiraina kireina nigiyakana dangerous distasteful pretty lively kind
shinsetsuna
shinkenna
shizukana shoujikina
serious
quiet honest
sumaatona
sukina
slender
favorite
himana henna
ijiwaruna jouzuna
taihenna taimenna
teineina yuumeina
awful lazy
polite famous
Modifying Nouns
When used as modifiers of nouns, both i-adjectives and na-adjectives take the basic form, and precede nouns just like in English.
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I-Adjectives Na-Adjectives
I-Adjectives as Predicates
Adjectives can function like verbs and conjugate just like verbs. Present Negative Informal Past Past Negative Replace the final ~ i with ~ ku nai Replace the final ~ i with ~ katta Replace the final ~ i with ~ ku nakatta
Add ~desu to all of the informal forms. Formal There is also a variation in the formal negative forms. * Negative: Replace ~i with ~ku arimasen * Past Negative: Add ~ deshita to ~ku arimasen These negative forms are considered slightly more polite than others.
Exception
The adjactive "ii" (means good) is only one exception to the rule of i-adjectives. It derives from yoi, so its conjugation is mostly based on that of yoi. Informal Present Present Negative Past
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Formal ii desu yoku nai desu yoku arimasen yokatta desu yoku nakatta desu
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Past negative
yoku nakatta
Na-Adjectives as Predicates
These are called na-adjectives because ~na marks this group of adjectives when they directly modify nouns (e.g. yuumeina gaka). Unlike the i-adjectives, na-adjectives cannot be used as predicates without alteration; when a na-adjective is used as a predicate, the final ~na is deleted and replaced by ~ da (or ~ desu for formal speech). Just as with nouns, ~ da or ~ desu change form to express the past tense, the negative, and the affirmative. Informal Present Present Negative Past Past negative yuumei da yuumei dewa nai yuumei datta yuumei dewa nakatta Formal yuumei desu yuumei dewa arimasen yuumei deshita yuumei dewa arimasen deshita
General Rules
i-Adjectives
Non-Past Plain (dict) root + i root + < na i root+ < arimasen TE= root +< de Polite root + i + de tsu root + < na i de tsu - root + < na i kata + Plain root + haata Past Polite root + haata detsu root + < arimasendeshita
na-Adjectives
Non-Past Plain (dict) dict + da Polite dict + de tsu root + de ariimasen dict + de wa na ii root + ja arimasen + Plain dict + daa ta dict + de wa naikaata dict + janai kaata Past Polite dict + de shita dict + dewa arimasendeshita dict + ja arimasende shita
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TE= root + de
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