< Japanese < Lessons
Related content
Related lesson
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
| Japanese | English | Reading | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ゲーム | a game, a videogame | ||
| 天気 | the weather | てんき | |
| 夜 | night | よる | |
| 山 | a mountain | やま | |
| トンネル | a tunnel | ||
| 本 | a book | ほん | |
| かばんだ | a bag | ||
| 荷物 | baggage, luggage | にもつ |
| Japanese | English | Reading | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 楽しい | fun, enjoyable | たのしい | |
| 暑い | hot (weather) | あつい | |
| 寒い | cold (weather) | さむい | |
| 高い | high, tall, expensive | たかい | |
| 低い | low, short | ひくい | |
| 安い | cheap | やすい | |
| 軽い | light (weight) | かるい | |
| 重い | heavy | 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 | |
This article is issued from Wikibooks. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.