Examples of Japanese nouns that seem like adjectives when translated into English eg 曇り

Question

As above. This sentence came up in my test:

今日は曇りで、寒かったです。

and I was a bit puzzled why it wasn't kumokkute (I translated it as cloudy = adj) until I looked it up on Jisho.com. But I'm still confused by this concept so I'm looking for examples of nouns like this so I can understand it better and know which nouns I should be aware of, if there are any. Unless this noun is an exception. Please list any common ones if you can think of any,

Thank you!

Answer 1

Some English adjectives have no corresponding Japanese i-adjective or na-adjective, and you have to use noun- or verb-based expressions in Japanese.

Examples I can think of are:

• green, orange, pink, gray, etc. (Colors in Japanese. Despite the article, 茶色い is also a perfect i-adjective just like 黄色い)

  それは緑色だ。ピンク色の紙。灰色の猫。
  (Incorrect: ピンク色な紙。灰色い猫。)

• windy, sunny, cloudy, rainy, etc.

  今日は雨だ。雨の日。昨日は曇りだった。曇りの日。明日は風が強い。風が強い日。

• sick

  彼は病気だ。病気の人。病気になる。

• different

  それはAとは違う。Aと違う意味。それはBとは異なる。Bとは異なった意味。

  A few young people use 違くて, 違くって, 違かった, etc., but these are broken and you should avoid them.

• wrong

  それは違う。それは誤っている。それは間違いだ。間違った文章。 (Incorrect: それは違い。)

• dead

  彼は死んでいる。すでに死んだ人。彼は5年前に死んだ。

• angry

  彼は怒っている。怒った顔をする。

Answer 2

It might be better to think of 曇り as "the state of having cloudiness."

Check out the examples here: Examples

For example:

曇りのはいった水晶 cloudy crystal

This could be translated as "a crystal that possesses the state of cloudiness."

A second example:

曇りのない心の持ち主 a person with 「a clear conscience [a serene mind]

This could be translated as "the possessor of a heart/mind that has no cloudiness."

Answer 3

Kumokute would be if there was a "Kumoi" i-adjective.

In this case くもり comes from the verb くもる, so in this case could use くもって which is maybe what you were expecting:

今日は曇って、寒かったです。