The adjectives i in Japanese

Let's now meet i adjectives in japanese!

As we already know the adjectives in Japanese superficially, the time has come to delve a little deeper into the subject of Japanese adjectives.

It is at this point that Japanese grammar is slow to be understood by beginners in Japanese language. We are all familiar with the concept of verb inflection, which concerns changing the spelling of verbs according to verb tenses, but the concept of adjective inflection is something that does not exist in our grammar.

Hover the mouse cursor over Japanese symbols (kanjis) to see the pronunciation and translation.

The adjectives i in Japanese

THE japanese grammar is composed of only two types of adjectives, which can be inflected in four tenses: past affirmative, past negative, present affirmative and present negative. In addition, there is also the formal mode, which uses です, and the informal mode, which does not use です.

In total, we have sixteen adjective inflections in Japanese grammar, eight of which are for Japanese adjectives. い and eight for Japanese adjectives な. Do you find it complicated? After this article you will realize that it is easier than it looks.

Affirmative present of the adjectives i

This is the easiest inflection of Japanese adjectives い. It is also known as the infinitive mood, since there are practically no changes in the way of writing the adjective. In Japanese grammar, this is the primary form of adjectives. い. And it is from this that the other push-ups are built.

Examples:

新しいボール – Ball new

高いビル – Construction high (large)

青い空 – Heaven blue

As we can see, the primary form of adjectives い it's always with the ending い.

Affirmative past of adjectives i

Here, we have another simple part of Japanese grammar: The Affirmative Past of Adjectives い. To put an adjective い in the affirmative past, just change the ending い per かった. Check it out:

古い家 will come 古かった家

青い空 will come 青かった空

新しい車 will come 新しかった車

Negative present of adjectives i

To conjugate an adjective in the negative present, Japanese grammar guides us to change the ending い per くない, which is the negative ending of Japanese adjectives.

白い本 will come 白くない本

古い家 will come 古くない家

The negative past of adjectives i

To put an adjective い in the negative past, just change the ending い per くなかった. This is an interesting part of Japanese grammar. It looks like they joined the negative present くない with the past affirmative かった, graduating くなかった.

古い家 will come 古くなかった家

白い本 will come 白くなかった本

Conclusion

If you still can't understand how to create sentences and use adjectives in japanese, do not worry. The important thing now is to know how to inflect adjectives according to Japanese grammar. During the next articles we will learn the ways to use an adjective in Japanese.

Kanji calligraphy exercise

Below are the Japanese ideographic symbols used in this article. Selecting the desired kanji, copy and paste them into Worksheet for Kana and Kanji Practice , a new window will open where you can view the printable file and practice Japanese calligraphy by covering the gray symbols and then trying to write yourself. Just print and practice.