Linguanaut

Japanese Adjectives

This article has not the goal to give you a list of all the adjectives in Japanese, but to explain to you what types of adjectives exist, and how they are used.

i-adjective

These adjectives end with a –i (with some exception) and are used as follows.

Normal form : Ureshii desu

Negative form : Ureshikunai desu

Past form : Ureshikatta desu

Past Negative : Ureshikunakatta desu

When you use them in a sentence, you just place them before the noun they refer too :

Ex : Ureshii jikan. うれしい時間. An happy moment.

       Kawaikunai neko. かわいくない猫. An ugly cat.

       Kono party ha tanokishatta desu. このパーテイはたのしかったです。This party was fun.

       Kare ga yasashikunakatta desu. 彼が優しくなかったです。He was not nice.

-Na adjective

These adjectives are used a bit differently :

Normal form : Shiawase da

Negative form : Shiawase ja nai

Past form : Shiawase datta

Past negative : shiawase ja nakatta

When you use these adjectives with a noun, you have to use the particle –na.

Ex : Kirei na inu. きれいな犬。A beautifull dog.

       Shizuka na niwa. 静かな庭。A calm garden.

      Kanojo ha shinsetsu datta. 彼女は親切だった。She was gentle.

     Kono mise ha nigiyaka ja nakatta. この店はにぎやかじゃなかった。This shop was not popular.

Adding adjectives

When you want to use more than one adjective, you have to « link » them with the following grammar :

When the 2 adjectives are both either positives or negatives, you can use them this way :

For the i-adjective : the last one is used as usual (tense, form) but all the ones before are used in the –Te form : Ureshii > ureshikute.

Ex : Yasukute akarui heya desu. 安くて明るい部屋です。It’s a cheap and bright room.

Takakute semakute tookatta apato desu. 高くて狭くて遠かったァパトです。It was an expensive, small and far away apartment.

Yasashikunakute kawaikunai neko desu. やさしくなくてかわいくない猫です。It’s not nice bad looking cat.

For the na-adjectives : you have to link them with –de and the last one is used as usual.

Ex : Kirei de shinsetsu na hito desu. きれいで親切な人です。It’s a beautifull and gentle person.

You can link –i and –na adjectives in the same way :

Ex : Shizuka ja nakute kurai kyoushitsu desu. 静かじゃなくて暗い教室です。It’s a not calm and dark class room.

Majime de yasashii hito desu.  まじめで優しい人です。It’s a serious and nice person.

Always remember that you should link adjectives that have the same positive or negative meaning.

If you want to link adjectives with opposite meaning, you can do it as follows :

Kirei desu ga takai desu. きれいですが高いです。It’s beautiful but it’s expensive.

Adverb

The i-adjective can become adverb when you replace the last –i by –ku and using them with a verb.

Ex :

(Samui) >Samuku narimashita. 寒くなりました。It became cold.

(Tanoshikunai) > Tanoshikunaku narimashita. 楽しくなくなりました。It became not fun.

(Hayai) Hayaku tabete kudasai. 早く食べてください。Eat quickly.

(Ookii) Ookiku kaite kudasai. 大きく書いてください。Write big.

(Chiisai) Chiisaku shite kudasai. 小さくしてください。Make it small.

The –na adjective can become an adverb by using –ni instead of –na to link with a verb.

Ex :

Shizuka ni shite kudasai. 静かにしてください。Be quiet.

Japanese Adjectives Types

So Basically Japanese adjectives come in two main forms: "true" and "adjectivial nouns." In some circles they are also known as "i adjectives" and "na adjectives" because those are the suffixes they get when they're followed by a noun. Nevertheless, we can call them "true" and "adjectivial nouns" in this page, here are some examples of both types:

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Here is a list of the most used Japanese adjectives, try to memorize them because they're used very often:

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I hope the content of this page was useful to you, and that you learned some Japanese Adjectives. Try to memorize them to be able to use them in your daily conversation. Make sure to check our Learn Japanese page, which contains several lessons that might help you in your learning process.
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