Adjectives

We've already used some adjectives as the state-of-being but we have yet to describe a noun directly with adjectives. In order to do this, we first have to learn the two different types of adjectives in Japanese.

There are two types of adjectives called i-adjectives and na-adjectives.

Examples of i-adjectives

All i-adjectives end in 「い」.

1. いい - good
2. かっこいい - cool; handsome
3. 忙しい 【いそが・しい】 - busy
4. 楽しい 【たの・しい】- fun
5. 暑い 【あつ・い】 - hot
6. 寒い 【さむ・い】 - cold

Examples of na-adjectives

All adjectives that do not end in 「い」 are na-adjectives.

1. 好き 【す・き】 - likable
2. 元気 【げん・き】 - healthy; lively
3. 静か 【しず・か】 - quiet

Examples of na-adjectives that end in 「い」

Though most adjectives that end in 「い」 are i-adjectives, there are a small number of na-adjectives that end in 「い」. The examples below are some of the most common na-adjectives that end in 「い」.

1. きれい - clean; pretty
2. 嫌い 【きら・い】 - distasteful
3. 幸い 【さいわ・い】 - luckily, fortunately

Describing nouns directly

You can easily describe a noun by placing the adjective directly in front of the noun. For na-adjectives, you first need to add 「な」 before you can attach the adjective to the noun (hence the name).

Example

1. 人 【ひと】 - person
2. 時 【とき】 - when
3. ゲーム - game
4. 物 【もの】 - object; thing

1. いい人
   good person
2. 元気な人
   lively; healthy person
3. きれいな人
   pretty person
4. 忙しい時
   when busy
5. 楽しいゲーム
   fun game
6. 好きな物
   likable thing

You're so-so handsome

1. 山本 【やまもと】 - Yamamoto (surname)
2. 新しい 【あたら・しい】 (i-adj) - new
3. とても (adv) - very
4. まあまあ (adv) - so-so
5. ありがとうございます - thank you (polite)

スミス： 田中先生は、新しい先生ですか？
Smith: Is Tanaka-sensei a new teacher?

山本： そうですよ。
Yamamoto: That's right.

スミス： とてもきれいな人ですね。
Smith: (She's) a very pretty person, isn't she?

山本： そうですか？
Yamamoto: Is that so?

スミス： あっ、山本先生も、まあまあかっこいいですよ！
Smith: Ah, Yamamoto-sensei is so-so handsome too！

山本： ・・・ありがとうございます。
Yamamoto: ...Thank you.