Japanese doesn't technically have adjectives, but special types of nouns and verbs called na-adjectives and i-adjectives respectively have the same function.
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Why does Japanese have two kinds of adjectives? (-i adjectives and -na adjectives)
Japanese has two kinds of adjectives known by several terms but the ones I know are i-adjectives and na-adjectives - why?
I recall that Japanese adjectives are much more like verbs than in English ...
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i-adjectives used as na-adjectives: is there a difference? (e.g. 大きい versus 大きな)
There are at the very least several i-adjectives can be used as na-adjectives by dropping the final い and adding な in its place. The most common examples of this, as far as I am aware, are 大きい and ...
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what is the difference between -さ and -み suffixes to make a noun out of an adjective?
Example 悲しさ is sadness, and 悲しみ is sadness too. What is the difference?
According to Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, -み "is more emotive and concrete characterization of some state" and -さ ...
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～うございます - keigo い-adjectives
I'm not sure if this is actual keigo, or just a polite form of adjectives. Anyway, there are several that we're all familiar with that are still used today.
はやい → おはようございます
ありがたい → ...
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What exactly does an adjective stem + そう mean?
The other day I posted a picture of some food on Facebook, and I noticed that all of my Japanese friends were saying 「おいしそう」. I made a good guess to what it meant, but I wasn't certain what exactly ...
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How does adding 手 to the beginning of an adjective change its meaning?
There are several adjectives that are formed by attaching 「手」 to more common adjectives:
手厳しい
手堅い
手早い
手広い
手短い
But most of the time this does not seem to change the meaning of the adjective very ...
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What is ~げに suffix actually?
Today, while looking up random words in WWWJDIC, I stumbled upon an example sentence for the word いとしい as below:
少女は人形をいとしげに抱き締めた。 The girl squeezed her doll affectionately.
The sentence uses ...
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What exactly is a “taru adjective”
On the talk page of the Wikipedia article on "Japanese adjectives", user Dougalg suggested nearly two years ago:
I know these are falling out of use, but still exist. If anyone can give an ...
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Are foreign adjectives always な adjectives?
Sitting in a restaurant yesterday I saw a sign advertising a mango flavoured bagel. It was described as トロピカルな味.
That just got me wondering... whenever a 外来語【がいらいご】(word taken from a foreign language ...
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Adjectives functioning both as イ- and ナ-adjective
This question has made me think about the class of adjectives, which can function both as イ- and as ナ-adjective, e.g.
大きい 大きな
小さい 小さな
真っ白い 真っ白な (etc.)
細かい 細かな
暖かい 暖かな
四角い 四角な (etc.)
柔らかい ...
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Usage of ～じゃん (～じゃない)
I'd like to know if I can put ～じゃん at the end of every adjective, if there are any exceptions to that usage, and if it's different from ～じゃない.
Adj (na) + じゃん
便利じゃん
便利だったじゃん
便利じゃないじゃん
...
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When would you use 新{あら}たな and 新{あたら}しい
To say new, the first way that I learned is to use the i-adjective 新しい. But I noticed that the na-adjective 新たな is used a lot in written texts. Is there any difference in when either is used?
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What is the difference between “〜がる” and “〜がっている”
I want to know the difference between 〜がる and 〜がっている, and in what situations I can use them.
My friend said 〜がる is used for a regular activity that someone does every day or every week, and the ...
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1answer
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How did やわらかい gain its い?
As we know, there is a class of adjectives that end in 〜らか: 滑【なめ】らか, 明【あき】らか, 清【きよ】らか, 安【やす】らか, etc.
やわらか (柔らか or 軟らか) is also in this class of adjectives. However, it can also be written as the ...
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How do you say “You have gotten better at X”?
I was just reminded on another site that "being good at something" is expressed as [上手]{じょうず}/[上手]{うま}い, not いい. How do you tell someone they "have gotten better at something"? Xさん, 料理することがもっと上手いですね。 ...
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Can a noun + suru have an adjective modify the noun as well?
”I did some difficult studying last night."
Could I say, "昨夜、難しい勉強しました。”?
Basically, my question is: can an adjective, relative clause, or adjectival phrase modify a noun that has する attached. For ...
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いAdjective. difference between くて and く
Is it
太陽光線は暖かいけどまぶしく、肌に刺すようです
or
太陽光線は暖かいけどまぶしくて、肌に刺すようです
What's the difference between くて and く?
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How to construct potential form for adjectives
I could not help but notice that adjectives cannot directly conjugate to have a potential form:
E.g. 赤い does not become 赤られる for (can be red)
(Question) Which of the below are acceptable forms ...
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1answer
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Is ～がる suffix limited to specific adjectives only?
I noticed that there are some adjectives that have ～がる suffix to make them into verbs. Some examples from WWWJDIC:
ほしがる
こわがる
いたがる
くるしがる
さびしがる
うれしがる
Apparently ～たい form also can take ...
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1answer
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Is there a pattern to the usage of 〜的 on the end of words?
Sometimes I think it's more obvious when to use 〜的 as a suffix for example 国家 "nation/state" vs 国家的 "national", but in a lot of other cases I think the distinction might be more blurred, and they ...
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Usage of noun-modifying である
I'm pretty sure I understand the usage of「である」 here:
ピアニストである私の姉は、いつも手に怪我をしないように気をつけています
My sister, a pianist, is always careful not to injure her hands. (My translation)
But I'm wondering if ...
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い-Adjective Conjugation: かったです vs でした
When we first studied adjective conjugation in my Japanese class, I kept making the same mistake habitually; I would conjugate the past tense of い-adjectives with でした at the end instead of dropping ...
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Producing なる adjectives
I found this adjective from 7!!'s song 「ラヴァーズ」(Lovers):
無邪気なる
Dictionary entries categorises 無邪気 as a noun and な-adjective.
For reference, I shall extract parts from two different stanzas in ...
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How can I express that X is as big/small/fast/… as Y?
I would like to know how to express that something is equal in some aspect to another thing (or person, if that makes a difference), as you would express in English by saying:
X is as (adjective) as ...
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Is it true that all nouns must be able to accept a が particle and a を particle?
Is it true that all nouns must be able to accept a が particle and a を particle?
I was curious about how we could form a sentence with:
特別が
特別を
出色が
出色を
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why are we allowed to use を particle with na-adjectives?
Can someone explain the usage of a na-adjective with the を particle?
Like I cannot understand why we can say ほうれん草を嫌いな人もいる,
because I'd thought that it had to be a が or の particle instead of an を ?
...
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1answer
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Why does 微妙 become “sucky” in slang usage?
Technically the word 微妙 means
as per WWWJDIC:
(adj-na,n) (1) delicate; subtle; sensitive; (2) difficult; delicate (situation); complicated; (3) doubtful; questionable; dicey;
However, last ...
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1answer
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When you combine adjectives with the て-form does it imply a relationship between them?
For example, if I said...
きれいで静かな町
Does that mean there's a relationship between きれい and 静か (like the relationship that happens when you combine two verbs with the て-form)? Or do the two ...
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1answer
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"一生懸命な”のニュアンスを説明してもらえませんか。Nuances of 一生懸命な
一生懸命な彼に申し訳ない気がしました。そこで、私は一度彼と会って面と向かって断ろうと思ったのです。
'I felt I had to do something so I decided to meet him face to face and tell him I wasn't interested.'
一生懸命を副詞として使ったら 'eagerly, with utmost ...
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1answer
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Difference between 「~がる」 and 「～そう」
「～がる」と「～そう」の違いは何でしょうか。感覚的に同じではないことは分かりますが、説明はできません。どうも「～がる」形はもはや口語ではあまり使われないように感じます（「怖がる」「怖そう」などの完全に意味が変わる形容詞を除く。）。そういったレジスター(言語使用域)の違いも含めての回答を期待しています。もしこの質問がDuplicateであれば、元の質問を教えていただければ幸いです。
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Is 暖かった standard Japanese?
I know Google hits aren't necessarily reliable, but I nonetheless searched for the following two forms:
暖かかった - 約 2,770,000 件
暖かった - 約 2,810,000 件
The numbers are much further apart if I search ...
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2answers
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Is 眠たい an adjective?
I was told 眠たい was an adjective, and that it is an exceptional case. How does it work as an adjective and what is its relation to the verb 眠る?
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2answers
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How to Convert Na-adjectives and Nouns to the ば-form?
I am practicing the ば-conditional and my main reference right now is the oxford grammar book.
It only mentions how to convert keiyoushi or i-adjectives and not keiyoudoushi or na-adjectives.
Can ...
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1answer
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How do you conjugate i- and na- adjectives (into the presumptive, imperative, conditional, provisional, and progressive forms)?
I feel like mastering conjugations is a major contributor to self expression in Japanese. I realized that some of the grammar points I have been working on have taught me new conjugations.
Usually ...
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General rules in negative adjectives in superpolite form
I have trouble trying to find this specific grammar in text books.
I have a negative adjective in polite form:
寒くないです
I want to use the superpolite form:
寒くないございます
That seems right, but I have ...
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adjective before adjective
As far as I know an adjective can be before noun(for ex. 美しい花) or before other adjective, but with て(for ex. 寂しくて眠れない夜). But in the following sentence「指定席みたいなコジンマリとした少年 」- this part is a bit of odd. ...
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A question about the usage of ため and spacing
上下のフロアを繋ぐ階段は各層にひとつのみ、その全てが怪物のうろつく危険な迷宮区画に存在するため発見も踏破も困難だが、一度誰かが突破して上層の都市に辿り着けばそこと下層の各都市の≪転移門≫が連結されるため誰もが自由に移動できるようになる。
There were 2 things I didn't get in this sentence (or maybe a paragraph...?):
...
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1answer
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形容詞 ending in /ei/ and /ii/
This page discusses the "adjective" べき and mentions that if it had evolved like other adjectives, it would have been べい.
That made me think: Why are there no 形容詞 ending in /ei/ or /ii/ (except for ...
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Can 一緒 ever be used as an adjective?
According to this post, the に in 一緒に makes this an adverb. Which means that 一緒 is an adjective. But when can 一緒 ever be (or be used as) an adjective? 一緒人? (conjoined twins, a couple, best friends ...
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1answer
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Are 弱い相互作用 and 強い相互作用 unnatural?
In introductory physics books, when they introduce 弱い相互作用 "weak interaction" and 強い相互作用 "strong interaction", I almost always see a notification that these terms are supposed to be the name of the ...
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1answer
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Size adjectives and prefixes
I know some size adjectives like 小さい (small), 大きい (big), and 並 (normal). Does anyone have a list of other size adjectives: something that could describe things ranging from micro things like Legos to ...
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