Adjectives

Japanese Grammar 1

Chapter 9 · Adjectives: i and na

🎨 Adjectives — い-けいようし と な-けいようし

Japanese has two kinds of adjective, and the difference decides everything about how they behave. I-adjectives end in い and change their own ending for negative and past, like a verb. Na-adjectives behave like nouns: they take です for the work and a な before a noun. This chapter gives you both, the four forms of each, how to put them before nouns, how to join two adjectives, and the useful pattern AはBが〜です.

1. I-adjectives

I-adjectives end in い, and that final い is the part that changes (たかい, おいしい, ちいさい).

In more formal speech and writing, the negative forms can also be くありません (たかくありません) and くありませんでした. They mean the same as くないです and くなかったです.

2. Na-adjectives

Na-adjectives behave like nouns, and the tense and negative are carried by です, exactly as in Chapter 4:

3. Adjectives before a noun

In a sentence: エディンバラは しずかな まちです。 Edinbara wa shizuka na machi desu ("Edinburgh is a quiet town"), and これは あたらしい くるまです。 kore wa atarashii kuruma desu ("This is a new car").

4. Joining adjectives: 〜くて and 〜で

To say "X and Y" about the same thing, change the first adjective into its connecting form:

This くて / で link is the adjective version of the te-form you will meet for verbs in Japanese Grammar 2.

5. とても, あまり and other degree words

6. AはBがCです: the "topic, part, description" pattern

Japanese describes a person or thing by naming a topic (は) and then a part or quality of it (が) with its description. It looks like "As for A, its B is C".

This is the same は … が structure you saw with すき in Chapter 5: わたしは すしが すきです ("As for me, sushi is liked"). Japanese uses it whenever a quality belongs to part of the topic.

🗣️ In Use — つかいかた

Adjectives in real exchanges. Read each aloud.

📋 Quick Reference

✍️ Practice — れんしゅう

Try each one, then click to check.