Adjectives
Japanese has two kinds of adjective and they behave completely differently: one conjugates like a verb, the other is really a noun. Sorting a new adjective into the right box on first meeting saves a lot of trouble later.
い-adjectives conjugate
They carry their own tense and their own negative. No です needed to make them work — です is only politeness paint on top.
| 高い takai (expensive, tall) | |
|---|---|
| is | 高い / 高いです |
| is not | 高くない / 高くないです |
| was | 高かった / 高かったです |
| was not | 高くなかった |
| and… | 高くて |
| if | 高ければ |
Note what is not there: ✗ 高いでした. The adjective already holds the past; です cannot hold it too.
いい ii (good) is irregular, because it is よい yoi in disguise: よくない, よかった — never iikatta.
な-adjectives are nouns wearing a hat
They cannot conjugate, so the copula does the work — exactly as it would for a noun.
| 静か shizuka (quiet) | |
|---|---|
| is | 静かです |
| is not | 静かじゃない / ではありません |
| was | 静かでした |
| was not | 静かじゃなかった |
| before a noun | 静かな部屋 — a quiet room |
| and… | 静かで |
The な in "な-adjective" is exactly that linking な: 静かな人. い-adjectives need nothing: 高い人.
Which is which?
Ending in い is a good clue but not a rule — きれい kirei (pretty/clean), 有名 yūmei (famous) and 嫌い kirai (disliked) all end in い and are all な-adjectives. Learn the type with the word; a dictionary marks it.
They come before the noun, always
高い本 takai hon — an expensive book 静かな町 shizuka na machi — a quiet town
No agreement of any kind: not for number, not for gender, not for case. Japanese adjectives are among the least demanding in this collection.
Comparison has no special form
Nothing changes on the adjective at all — the comparison lives in the sentence.
| more than | 東京は大阪より大きいです — Tokyo is bigger than Osaka |
| the most | 一番大きい ichiban ōkii — the biggest ("number one big") |
| A or B? | 犬と猫とどちらが好きですか — dogs or cats, which do you prefer? |
| not as… as | 大阪は東京ほど大きくない — Osaka isn't as big as Tokyo |
Adverbs from adjectives
| type | change | example |
|---|---|---|
| い-adjective | い → く | 早い hayai → 早く hayaku (quickly) |
| な-adjective | + に | 静か shizuka → 静かに shizuka ni (quietly) |
早く起きました — I got up early. 上手に話します — speaks skilfully.
The one that surprises everybody
好き suki "liked", 嫌い kirai "disliked", 上手 jōzu "skilled", 欲しい hoshii "wanted" are adjectives, not verbs. So the thing you like is the grammatical subject:
寿司が好きです — sushi is likeable (to me) = I like sushi.
Which is why が turns up where an English speaker expects を. See Prepositions.
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