Japanese/Lessons/I-adjectives
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There are two types of adjectives in modern Japanese: な- and い-adjectives. Both are descriptive and modify nouns. They describe nouns and form predicates differently.
The い-adjectives (形容詞, けいようし) are fairly simple creatures. Any い-adjective will end on an "い" in it's basic form and they behave very regularly. The only problem in differentiating between い- and な-adjectives comes from the fact that some な-adjectives also end on "い" (e.g. きれい and ゆうめい) or a syllable in the い-row (e.g. げんき).
Watch and Listen
editListen to the teacher read the following phrases, or click here (needs soundbite) to listen on your computer.
Adjective | Noun | Adjective and noun |
---|---|---|
ゲームだ。 | ||
トンネルだ。 | ||
かばんだ。 | ||
Vocabulary
editJapanese | English | Reading | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
ゲーム | a game, a videogame | ||
天気 | the weather | てんき | |
夜 | night | よる | |
山 | a mountain | やま | |
トンネル | a tunnel | ||
本 | a book | ほん | |
かばんだ | a bag | ||
荷物 | baggage, luggage | にもつ |
Japanese | English | Reading | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
楽しい | fun, enjoyable | たのしい | |
暑い | hot (weather) | あつい | |
寒い | cold (weather) | さむい | |
高い | high, tall, expensive | たかい | |
低い | low, short | ひくい | |
安い | cheap | やすい | |
軽い | light (weight) | かるい | |
重い | heavy | おもい |
Grammar
editWhen they stand alone, い-adjectives don't take the copula, but when modifying nouns, they do. Otherwise they don't change.
<い-adjective> | |
<い-adjective> <noun> | です |
だ |