Some Useful Adjectives (pre-nominal, predicate forms) i-type and na-type Adjectives Conjugating Adjectives in the Polite Present Tense Confirming with the Particle ne Emphasizing with the Particle yo The Question Words donna and dō Japanese 1100-L06a Class Session 6a Chapter 4

Japanese 1100-L06a In English an adjective can be used as a pre-nominal modifier (placed before the noun it modifies) or as a sentence predicate (a predicate placed at the end of a sentence): An old building(pre-nominal use) The building is old.(predicate use) The same is true for Japanese: furui tatemono(pre-nominal use) (an) old building tatemono wa furui desu.(predicate use) The building is old. Some Useful Adjectives (pre-nominal, predicate forms)

Japanese 1100-L06a i-type and na-type Adjectives (p56-57) There are two kinds of Japanese adjectives 1 : true adjectives (or i-type) that end in ii or i when used in the pre-nominal form na adjectives (or na-type) that take the particle na when used in the prenominal form i-type adjectives are native Japanese words (if written in kanji, they have one kanji and one or more hiragana characters); the stem is the part without the i furui tatemonoatarashii tatemono old buildingnew building Most na-type adjectives are borrowed from Chinese; the stem is the part without the na kirei na tatemonorippa na tatemono pretty buildingsplendid building Adjectives borrowed from foreign languages today tend to be na-type There is a third type formed with the particle no which we will described later.

Japanese 1100-L06a Sample Adjectives (pages in textbook) i-type (stem + i)na-type (stem + na) akarui 明い brightbenri na 便利 な convenient atarashii 新しい newfuben na 不便 な inconvenient furui 古い oldijiwaru na 意地悪 な nasty, mean hiroi 広い spaciouskirei na きれい な pretty isogashii 忙しい busymajime na 真面目 な serious kawaii かわいい cuterippa na 立派 な splendid kibishii 厳しい strictshizuka na 静か な quiet oishii おいしい * deliciousanzen na 安全 な safe kitanai きたない dirtymodan na モダンな modern omoshiroi おもしろい interestingyuniiku ユニイークな unique semai 狭い narrowgenki na 元気な healthy takai 高い expensive, highkantan na 簡単な easy, simple ookii 大きい ** bigooki na 大きな big chiisai 小さい ** smallchiisa na 小さな small okashii おかしい ** funnyokashi na おかしな funny * 美味しい is non-standard for this adjective ** These adjectives have both i-type and na-type forms (they drop the final i in the na-form)

Japanese 1100-L06a More on na-type adjectives? i-type adjectives are native Japanese words na-type adjectives were originally borrowed from Chinese Chinese does not have “parts of speech” (words can be used as adjectives, verbs or other grammatical forms). The stem of na-type adjectives are generally Chinese nouns (most Chinese words consist of two kanji characters) anzen ( 安全 ) means “safety” or “safeness” in Chinese kirei ( きれい, originally 奇麗 ) means “beauty” or “prettiness” in Chinese In order to convert a Chinese “noun” to adjective in Japanese the Japanese verb naru (an old form of the verb to be) was added to the to the noun Over time, the –ru of naru was dropped: anzen naru became anzen na kirei naru became kirei na If you remember this bit of trivia, understanding some of the things we do (or don’t) do with na-type adjectives later on may make more sense to you Last point: there are no i-type adjectives that end in –ei in Japanese

Japanese 1100-L06a Affirmative: i-type na-type stem + i + desustem + desu atarashi i desukantan desu (It is) new(It is) simple Negativestem + ku + arimasenstem + ja arimasen stem + ku + nai desustem + dewa arimasen atarashiku arimasenkantan ja arimasen atarashiku nai desukantan dewa arimasen (It is) not new(It is) not simple ii (good) is a colloquial version of the adjective yoi; its negative form is: yoku arimasen yoku nai desu (It is) not good Conjugating Adjectives in the Polite Present Tense

Japanese 1100-L06a Confirming with the Particle ne Seek agreement from your conversation partner about what you say by adding the particle ne to the end of your statement The agreement reply can be ee, sō desu (yes it is) The disagreement reply can be sō desu ka (with falling-rising intonation) (is it so?) Examples: kyō wa ii tenki desu ne. ee, sō desu. Today the weather is good, isn’t it?Yes, it is. nihon-go wa kantan desu ne. sō desu ka Japanese is easy isn’t it?Is it?

Japanese 1100-L06a Emphasizing with the Particle yo Use the particle yo at the end of a sentence to emphasize a statement (think of it as a spoken ! ): nihon-go wa kantan desu yo.Japanese is easy, you know? sumisu sensei wa yasashii desu yo.Professor Smith is kind, I tell you!

Japanese 1100-L06a The Question Words donna and dō (p60) To ask about the state or the property of people and things you can use donna (what kind of ?) before a noun or dō (how?) at the end of a sentence before desu: tanaka-san wa donna hito desu ka.What kind of person is Mr. Tanaka? nihon-go no kurasu wa dō desu ka.How is (your) Japanese class? In a polite context you can use ikaga instead of dō.