Japanese/Lessons/Na-adjectives

< Japanese < Lessons

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

Listen to the teacher read the following phrases, or click here to listen on your computer.

Adjective Noun Adjective and noun
元気(げんき)だ。 人(ひと)だ。 元気(げんき)な人(ひと)だ。
奇麗(きれい)だ。 女(おんな)だ。 奇麗(きれい)な女(おんな)だ。
ハンサムだ。 男(おとこ)だ。 ハンサムな男(おとこ)だ。
優秀(ゆうしゅう)だ。 学生(がくせい)だ。 優秀(ゆうしゅう)な学生(がくせい)だ。
有名(ゆうめい)だ。 歌手(かしゅ)だ。 有名(ゆうめい)な歌手(かしゅ)だ。
大切(たいせつ)だ。 授業(じゅぎょう)だ。 大切(たいせつ)な授業(じゅぎょう)だ。
簡単(かんたん)だ。 宿題(しゅくだい)だ。 簡単(かんたん)な宿題(しゅくだい)だ。

Vocabulary

English Japanese Reading Notes
Nouns
person, people人ひと
woman女おんな
man男おとこ
class (session, not group of people), lecture授業じゅぎょう
homework宿題しゅくだい
English Japanese Reading Notes
な-adjectives
beautiful; clean, tidy奇麗きれい
handsomeハンサムハンサム
excellent優秀ゆうしゅう
famous有名ゆうめい
important大切たいせつ
simple, easy簡単かんたん

Grammar

な-Adjective Predicates

When used as predicates, な-adjectives behave just like nouns:

<な-adjective> です
だ

Examples:

奇麗(きれい)です。 (She) is pretty. (formal)
有名(ゆうめい)です。 (It) is famous. (formal)
簡単(かんたん)です。 (This) is simple. (formal)
元気(げんき)だ。 (I'm) well. (informal)
ハンサムだ。 (He) is handsome. (informal)
優秀(ゆうしゅう)だ。 (They) are bright. (informal)
大切(たいせつ)だ。 (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, "元気(げんき)だ" can mean any of: "I'm well," "He's well," "They're well," etc.

な-Adjectives noun modifiers

When 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 元気(げんき) 人(ひと) 元気(げんき)な人(ひと)です。
a famous doctor 有名(ゆうめい) 医者(いしゃ) 有名(ゆうめい)な医者(いしゃ)です。
an important class 大切(たいせつ) 授業(じゅぎょう) 大切(たいせつ)な授業(じゅぎょう)です。

Practice

Try writing and speaking out the following sentences in Japanese:

Formal Japanese

  1. I am well.
  2. He is bright.
  3. She is famous.
  4. That is simple.
  5. She is a pretty woman.
  6. He is a healthy man.
  7. This is an important class.
  8. They are bright students.

Informal Japanese

  1. He is famous.
  2. She is well.
  3. They are bright.
  4. This is important.
  5. He is a handsome man.
  6. She is an important person.
  7. This is a tidy classroom.
  8. They are healthy students.

Other ideas for practice include:

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.

This article is issued from Wikibooks. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.