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I checked the dictionary and found out that red is "aka"

Why does Google Translate turn aka to akai?

Kuruma wa akaidesu

(By the way, why is akai joined with desu?)

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Well, it's simple. While in English "red" is both a noun and an adjective, in Japanese the noun is "aka", written 赤 the adjective is "akai", written　赤い.

The fact that it's joined is probably just the way google joins romaji, I'm not sure. Also notice that originally there are no spaces in Japanese so Google probably just tries to make it more readable for people used to western languages that use spaces between words.

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  • Thanks, so you turn nouns to verbs by adding an "i"?
    – alex
    Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 6:27
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    @alex Not necessarily. There are two main types of adjectives in Japanese called i-adjectives and na-adjectives. You can find a lot of information on Japanese adjectives online. Here is one example.
    – Tommy
    Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 6:29
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    It's best to try not to think in terms of English when considering Japanese. Grammar is far more important than English meaning. Japanese does not actually have real adjectives, and some words that translate to English adjectives might actually be expressed as verbals or nominals in Japanese. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_equivalents_of_adjectives
    – weirdalsuperfan
    Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 7:22

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