2

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!

3 Answers 3

5

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。

1

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."

1

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。

2
  • Wait, so I 今日は曇って would have been correct if I was asked to conjugate 曇る instead of 曇り? How would I know when to use the noun or the verb? Thanks!
    – user65218
    Jul 7, 2014 at 20:03
  • Can't say for sure, but using the verb seems to me that describes the reason why it was cold. While using the 曇り just adds adjectives together. Moreover you can also say 今日は曇り、寒かったです, where it is just like using 曇って but in a nicer way. I think that the most important thing to remember here is that there is no way you can use "Komokute".
    – Rivera
    Jul 8, 2014 at 0:45

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