Types of Japanese Adjectives and How to Use Them
Adjectives or modifiers are a very important part of Japanese communication. Of course, that is true for any language, however it is especially true for Japanese speakers. Not only is the language especially rich in modifiers, but they have multiple functions – even acting as verbs or nouns themselves at times. Here is a quick introduction into the world of Japanese adjectives so that you can start using them in sentences accurately and communicate effectively in Japanese.
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The Two Types of Adjectives
Japanese modifiers can be put into two different categories: i-adjectives and na-adjectives.
As you may have guessed, the the i-adjectives end with i and na-adjectives end with…wait for it…na! These adjectives behave differently and have separate origins. The i-adjectives are native to the Japanese language, but na-adjectives are imported from other countries (mostly China).
Let’s take a look at some examples of these two types of Japanese adjectives.
i-adjectives
- atarashii 新しい new
- atsui 熱い hot
- tanoshii 楽しい fun
na-adjectives
- sukina 好きな favorite
- daijina 大事な important
- jiyuuna 自由な free
As you can clearly see, the adjectives end differently, but when they are modifying nouns, they work just about the same way. Like in English, to modify a noun, place the adjective before the word that it is describing.
kitanai heya
汚い部屋
dirty room
genkina hito
元気な人
a healthy person
How to Use Japanese Adjectives
As I mentioned earlier, Japanese adjectives are extremely useful and can serve many functions.
i-adjectives as verbs
Thanks to i-adjectives it is possible to form a proper Japanese sentence with just one word! These adjectives have an alternate function as verbs in a Japanese sentence.
atsui.
熱い。
It is hot.
In this case 熱い (atsui) doesn’t simple mean “hot”. Rather, it means “is hot”. With the subject “it” implied, 「 熱い。」translates to the complete sentence “It is hot.” It’s simple, isn’t it? But perhaps a little bit too simple, so let’s try adding some more information into our sentences and see how adjectives react with the rest of the words.
watashi no pen ga kuroi.
私のペンは黒い。
My pen is black.
In this sentence, 私の indicates ownership over the pen, and 黒い closes out the sentence with “is black”. Notice how the adjective is active as a verb at the end of the sentence. Let’s look at one more example before moving on to the next point.
party ha tanoshii.
パーティーは楽しい。
The party is fun.
Hopefully you have been to plenty of fun parties. Now you can talk about how much fun you are having! But how do you describe a party that already happened? Since i–adjectives act as verbs, they also conjugate or change their form to express the past tense (and more…). Take a look!
party ha tanoshikatta.
パーティーは楽しかった。
The party was fun.
Look closely at the past tense form, and you will notice that the i (い) is now missing. In the process of changing to the past tense, the i (い) is dropped and replaced with katta (かった). This conjugation applies to all of the i-adjectives.
Let’s take a look again at the i-adjectives I introduced earlier and see how they look in the past tense form.
present / future
- atarashii 新しい new
- atsui 熱い hot
- tanoshii 楽しい fun
past
- atarashikatta 新しい was new
- atsukatta 熱い was hot
- tanoshikatta 楽しい was fun
na-adjectives as nouns
Unlike their counterparts, na-adjectives are not able to function as verbs by themselves. They do still have some unique qualities though. When acting as the subject or object of a sentence, some na-adjectives can be nouns. Here is an example a na-adjective and how it can else be a noun.
adjective
anzenna kinjo
安全な近所
a safe neighborhood
noun
kodomo ni totte anzenn ga taisetsu da.
子供にとって安全が大切だ。
For children safety is important.
To use na-adjectives as verbs in the same way as i-adjectives, you need to drop the na (な) and add だ or です like in the examples below.
kono heya ha kirei da.
この部屋はきれいだ。
This room is clean.
To use the past tense, replace だ with だった as you can see in the example.
kono heya ha kirei datta.
この部屋はきれいだった。
This room was clean.
I wonder what happened in that room. Perhaps there was a fun party!
Of course this is just scratching the surface of how adjectives could be used in Japanese. Keep following us for more free lessons and information on how to learn Japanese and live in Japan!
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