Japanese/Lessons/Na-adjectives
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 な-adjectives (形容動詞, けいようどうし) conjugate with nouns by appending "〜な" before the following noun.
Watch and Listen
editListen to the teacher read the following phrases, or click here (help·info) to listen on your computer.
Adjective | Noun | Adjective and noun |
---|---|---|
ハンサムだ。 | ハンサムな | |
Vocabulary
editJapanese | English | Reading | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
人 | person, people | ひと | |
女 | woman | おんな | |
男 | man | おとこ | |
授業 | class (session, not group of people), lecture | じゅぎょう | |
宿題 | homework | しゅくだい |
Japanese | English | Reading | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
奇麗 | beautiful; clean, tidy | きれい | |
ハンサム | handsome | ハンサム | |
優秀 | excellent | ゆうしゅう | |
有名 | famous | ゆうめい | |
大切 | important | たいせつ | |
簡単 | simple, easy | かんたん |
Grammar
editな-Adjective Predicates
editWhen used as predicates, な-adjectives behave just like nouns:
<な-adjective> | です |
だ |
Examples:
(She) is pretty. (formal) | |
(It) is famous. (formal) | |
(This) is simple. (formal) | |
(I'm) well. (informal) | |
ハンサムだ。 | (He) is handsome. (informal) |
(They) are bright. (informal) | |
(That) is important. (informal) |
Note that the pronouns are usually dropped when they can be inferred from context. The pronouns in the English version are examples only to make better formed English sentences. For example, "
な-Adjectives noun modifiers
editWhen preceding a modified noun, な-adjectives take a "な" before the noun:
<な-adjective> な <noun> | です |
だ |
Examples:
English | Adjective | noun | sentence |
---|---|---|---|
a healthy person | |||
a famous doctor | |||
an important class |
Practice
editTry writing and speaking out the following sentences in Japanese:
Formal Japanese
|
Informal Japanese
|
Other ideas for practice include:
- Write な-adjectives on pieces of paper along with nouns and keep these in separate stacks. Pick one of each and say the sentence.
- Now write the English on the other side and repeat, this time translating as well.
- Make pictures to represent the sentences and drill with those.
- Write a short story or describe something that happened to you.
If you need help gathering adjectives, you can search for lists on smart.fm. To check your story, you can post it on Lang-8.