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
Listen 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
| English | Japanese | Reading | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| a game, a videogame | ゲーム | ||
| the weather | 天気 | てんき | |
| night | 夜 | よる | |
| a mountain | 山 | やま | |
| a tunnel | トンネル | ||
| a book | 本 | ほん | |
| a bag | かばんだ | ||
| baggage, luggage | 荷物 | にもつ |
| English | Japanese | Reading | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| fun, enjoyable | 楽しい | たのしい | |
| hot (weather) | 暑い | あつい | |
| cold (weather) | 寒い | さむい | |
| high, tall, expensive | 高い | たかい | |
| low, short | 低い | ひくい | |
| cheap | 安い | やすい | |
| light (weight) | 軽い | かるい | |
| heavy | 重い | おもい |
Grammar
When 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 | |
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