Introduction

We learnt “きれい“（this） here. This is called “な形容詞”(Na-adjective). In Japanese there are two types of adjectives, Na-adjective and “い形容詞”(I-adjective). English adjectives do not conjugate, but Japanese adjectives do. Let’s take a look.

Na-adjective 

This type of adjective adds な (na) before a noun.

・この 花 は きれい です。(This flower is beautiful.)

Let’s change the sentence so the adjective modifies “flower”.

・これ は きれいな 花 です。（This is a beautiful flower.)

“きれい“ conjugated to “きれいな“, the adjective takes “な“ before the noun, so we call them “な形容詞”(Na-adjective).

I-adjective

This type of adjective ends with い (i).

・あの山は高いです。（That mountain is high.)

Let’s change the sentence so the adjective modifies “flower”.

“mountain”

・あれは高い山です。（That is a high mountain.)

I-adjectives do not change when they directly modify a noun.

（However, they do conjugate in negative and past forms.）

But the adjective keeps “い“before the noun, so we call them “い形容詞“（I-adjective)

Don’t worry if this feels difficult at first. You will get used to it with practice.

Negative Sentence 

 “な形容詞“（Na-adjective)

This would be the same as “〜は〜です”. You just need to change “です” to “ではないです”.

・この花はきれいではないです。

い形容詞“（I-adjective)

The adjective will conjugate, and “い” will be “くない”.

・あの山は高いです。（That mountain is high.)

・あの山は高くないです。（That mountain isn’t high.)

・この花は美しいです。（This flower is beautiful.)  

・この花は美しくないです。（This flower isn’t beautiful.)

Question sentence 

This is very easy. Just add “か” at the end, just like in “〜は〜です”.

・あの山は高いですか。（Is that mountain high?)

ーいいえ、高くないです。（No, that isn’t high.)

・その花はきれいですか。（Is that flower beautiful?)  

ーいいえ、きれいではないです。（No, that isn’t beautiful.)

 

Adverb

This is simple and similar to English. 

You can simply add an adverb before the adjective.

・あの山は少し高いです。（That mountain is a little bit high.)

・この花はとてもきれいです。（This flower is very beautiful.)

Vocabulary

(Table)

Na-adjective
きれい	kirei	clean/beautiful
しずか（静か）	shizuka	quiet
かいてき（快適）	kaiteki	confortable
I-adjective
たかい（高い）	takai	high/expensive
うつくしい（美しい）	utsukushii	beautiful
むずかしい（難しい）	muzukashii	difficult
おもしろい（面白い）	omoshiroi	interesting
Adverb
すこし（少し）	sukoshi	a little/a bit
とても	totemo	very/really
あまり〜ない	amari~nai	not very / not much
Noun
はな（花）	hana	flower
やま（山）	yama	mountain
じんじゃ（神社）	jinja	shrine
すし（寿司）	sushi	sushi
ホテル	hoteru	hotel
まち（町）	machi	town
ともだち（友達）	tomodachi	friend
ほん（本）	hon	book
へや（部屋）	heya	room
りょうり（料理）	ryōri	meal

Example

・あの神社はきれいです。（That shrine is beautiful.)

(Ano jinja wa kirei desu.）

・この寿司はとても美味しいです。(This sushi is really delicious.)

(Kono sushi wa totemo oishī desu.) 

・あのホテルは高いですか？（Is that hotel expensive?)

(Ano hoteru wa takai desu ka?)

・いいえ、あまり高くないです。（No, it isn’t that expensive.)

(Iie, amari takakunai desu.)

・この町は静かですか？（Is this town quiet?)

(Kono machi wa shizuka desuka?)

・はい、静かです。（Yes, it is quiet.)

(Hai, shizuka desu.)

・日本語は本当に難しいです。（Japanese is really difficult.)

(Nihongo wa hontōni muzukashī desu.)

  

Practice

Exercise 1: Translate to Japanese

1. My Japanese friend is very kind.

2. Is that book interesting?

3. No, this isn’t that interesting.

Exercise 2: Translate to English

1. あなたの部屋は快適ですか？

2. はい、快適です。

3. この料理はあまり美味しくないです。

Answers are at the end. 

Special Words That Look Like Na-Adjectives

Before we look at summury, here are a few special words that look like Na-adjectives:

・大きな

・小さな

・いろんな

・おかしな

These words only appear before nouns.

They do not conjugate like regular adjectives.

Just memorize them as special expressions.

For example:

・これは大きな岩です。

・あれは小さな石です。

Even native speakers rarely think about the difference — we just use them naturally. So don’t worry too much. Just remember that they only come before nouns.

 

Summary

There are two types of adjectives in Japanese: な-adjectives and い-adjectives.

• な-adjectives add な when they come before a noun.

• い-adjectives do not change when modifying a noun (大きい → 大きい岩).

• For negative sentences, な-adjectives change like “〜は〜です” (きれいです → きれいではないです).

• い-adjectives change い → くない in negative form (高い → 高くない).

• To make a question, simply add か at the end of the sentence.

• Some special words like 大きな, 小さな, いろんな, and おかしな only appear before nouns. Just memorize them.

Answer

Exercise 1: Translate to Japanese

1. My Japanese friend is very kind. → わたしの日本人の友達はとても優しいです。

2. Is that book interesting? → その本は面白いですか？

3. No, this isn’t that interesting. →いいえ、この本はあまり面白くないです。

 

※(3) is the answer to (2). Since (3) says “this”, the book is near the (3)‘s speaker. That means, “that” in (2) sentence should be translated “その” rather than “あの“→ I have explained this here.（Internal link)

Exercise 2: Translate to English

1. あなたの部屋は快適ですか？→ Is your room comfortable?

2. はい、快適です。→ Yes, it is.

3. この料理はあまり美味しくないです。→This dish isn’t that tasty.

Next we will learn Japanese verbs!(internal link)