Adjective Practice Exercises
Vocabulary used in this section
In the following exercises, we will practice the conjugations for adjectives. But first, you might want to learn or review the following useful adjectives that will be used in the exercises.
I have listed the kanji you will need for the vocabulary for your convenience. The link will take you to a diagram of the stroke order. However, it doesn't clearly show the direction (though you can kind of tell by the animation) so you should check with a kanji dictionary if you're not sure. I recommend practicing the kanji in the context of real words (such as the ones below).
Here is a list of some simple adjectives (and one noun) that might be used in the exercises.
- きれい - pretty; neat
- いい - good
- かっこいい - cool; good-looking
- 面白い 【おもしろい】 - interesting
- 有名 【ゆうめい】 - famous
- 嫌い 【きらい】 - dislike; hate
- 好き 【すき】 - like
- 大きい 【おおきい】 - big
- 小さい 【ちいさい】 - small
- 静か 【しずか】 - quiet
- 高い 【たかい】 - high; expensive
- 楽しい 【たのしい】 - fun
- 大切 【たいせつ】 - important
- 辛い 【からい】 - spicy
- 料理 【りょうり】 - cuisine
Conjugation Exercise
We are now going to practice the adjectives conjugations in order. Take each adjective and conjugate it to the following forms: the declarative (when applicable), negative, past, and negative past. In order to emphasize the fact that you can't use the declarative 「だ」 with i-adjectives, you should just write "n/a" (or just leave it blank) when a conjugation does not apply.
| plain | declarative | negative | past | negative-past |
| 面白い | n/a | 面白くない | 面白かった | 面白くなかった |
| 有名 | 有名だ | 有名じゃない | 有名だった | 有名じゃなかった |
| 嫌い | 嫌いだ | 嫌いじゃない | 嫌いだった | 嫌いじゃなかった |
| 好き | 好きだ | 好きじゃない | 好きだった | 好きじゃなかった |
| 大きい | n/a | 大きくない | 大きかった | 大きくなかった |
| きれい | きれいだ | きれいじゃない | きれいだった | きれいじゃなかった |
| 小さい | n/a | 小さくない | 小さかった | 小さくなかった |
| いい | n/a | よくない | よかった | よくなかった |
| 静か | 静かだ | 静かじゃない | 静かだった | 静かじゃなかった |
| 高い | n/a | 高くない | 高かった | 高くなかった |
| かっこいい | n/a | かっこよくない | かっこよかった | かっこよくなかった |
| 楽しい | n/a | 楽しくない | 楽しかった | 楽しくなかった |
| 大切 | 大切だ | 大切じゃない | 大切だった | 大切じゃなかった |
Sentence completion exercise
Now that we've practiced the basic conjugations for adjectives, we are going to practice using them in actual sentences using the particles covered in the last section.
Fill in the blank with the appropriate adjective or particle
Sample:
Ｑ） 学生？
Ａ） ううん、学生じゃない。
| 1. |
|
ジム） アリス、今 忙しい？ アリス） ううん、 。 |
| 2. |
|
アリス） 何 楽しい？ ボブ） ゲーム 楽しい。 |
| 3. |
|
アリス） 人は誰？ ボブ） ジム 大切だ。 |
| 4. |
|
アリス） 料理は、好き？ ボブ） ううん、辛くない料理 好きだ。 |
| 5. |
|
アリス） ジム 、かっこいい人？ ボブ） ううん、 。 |
| 6. |
|
アリス） ボブは、 人？ ボブ） ううん、有名じゃない。 |
| 7. |
|
アリス） 昨日のテストは、よかった？ ボブ） ううん、 。 |
ii desu ne
ii desu ne
Hmm...I'm not understanding
Hmm...I'm not understanding when it is appropriate to use the particles in the sentence completion exercise, mainly the usage of が。Can someone explain them?
が gives higher emphasis than
が gives higher emphasis than は, about the whole sentence. For example:
俺はここにいる - I am here.
おれがここにいる - I am the one that is here (or "I am here, but where are the others?", for example).
Correct me if i'm wrong.
In your example: "I am the
In your example: "I am the one that is here", you correctly placed the emphasis on the identity of the person who is "here", on this predetermined spot. However, your alternative inside brackets ("I am here, but where are the others?") is incorrect on this context, because here the taken-from-context emphasis is on the location of a given person (i.e., the exact opposite of what is intended). On the first case, the location is predetermined and one wants to know who is the person there, on the second case the person in question is fixed and his location is the requested information. The topic, marked by は, refers by definition to the UNrequested information.
This video explains the
This video explains the difference between が and は pretty well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkJ-citITIM
I have a question regarding
I have a question regarding the 小さい and 大きい.. both are treated as i-adjectives.
But I have seen sometimes the version 小さな [noun], 大きな [noun].. the translation doesn't seem to change, so what's the difference.. when to use the -i and when the -na version ?
As far as I'm aware, they are
As far as I'm aware, they are the same meaning. Just ookii/ookina, chisai/chisana, and okashii/okashina are special words that do both "i" and "na."
There may be more but I am not sure of any others.
I'm having difficulties to
I'm having difficulties to figure out how I can know which word to put a declarative on since it end with 'i' and which don't.
面白い (declarative) = n/a
but
きれい also end with 'i' but it can add declarative in
Any ideas how? It's kinda hard for me to differentiate.
you may or may not have
you may or may not have figured it out by now but here's a way to diffrentiate the two above and others as well
you need to know if the い is used to pronounce as it self or to elongate the previous vowel
example
in "面白い(omoshiroi)" the い is being pronounced as itself which makes it a
-i adjective and therfore can't use the declarative
but in きれい it is being used to elongate the "e" vowel making it a -na adjective and therefore you can add the declarative
go back to "The Writing System" page and go to the hiragana section and then scroll down to the "Long Vowel Sound" section
there you will find that the "い" actually elongates "e" vowel pronounciation
hope this helps you differentiate
Did you actually read the
Did you actually read the lesson on adjectives? It's all explained there ;)...
Appreciation
Tae Kim san,
I am very glad to find your online class where i have been figuring out Japanese grammar that made me confused before.
Thank you very much more that a lot.
Question about Question 7
Not that it's all too important, but what exactly is Alice asking Bobby in question 7? Is it "Was yesterday's test good?", or am I missing something?
Yes
Yes, that's correct. As in "Did yesterday's test go well?"
Thanks! And one more thing...
on the Verb basics page, there's a very small typo.
"Ru-verb are denoted as (v1) while u-verbs are denoted as (v5r)."
It should read v5. Not all of the words listed as u-verbs are listed as v5r on the WWWJDIC.
I think she is asking whether
I think she is asking whether yesterday at the restaurant was good.
「テスト」= test
「テスト」= test
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