Japanese/Lessons/Na-adjectives

content Japanese/Grammar/Adjectives lesson Japanese/Lessons/I-adjectives There are two types of adjectives in modern Japanese: な- and い-adjectives. Both are descriptive and modify nouns. They describe nouns and form predicates differently. The な-adjectives (形容動詞, けいようどうし) conjugate with nouns by appending "〜な" before the following noun. Watch and Listen Listen to the teacher read the following phrases, or click Ja-Na-adjectives watch and listen.ogg here to listen on your computer. Adjective Noun Adjective and noun元気 げんきだ。人 ひとだ。元気 げんきな人 ひとだ。奇麗 きれいだ。女 おんなだ。奇麗 きれいな女 おんなだ。ハンサムだ。男 おとこだ。ハンサムな男 おとこだ。優秀 ゆうしゅうだ。学生 がくせいだ。優秀 ゆうしゅうな学生 がくせいだ。有名 ゆうめいだ。歌手 かしゅだ。有名 ゆうめいな歌手 かしゅだ。大切 たいせつだ。授業 じゅぎょうだ。大切 たいせつな授業 じゅぎょうだ。簡単 かんたんだ。宿題 しゅくだいだ。簡単 かんたんな宿題 しゅくだいだ。 Vocabulary begin Nouns person, people 人 ひと woman 女 おんな man 男 おとこ class (session, not group of people), lecture 授業 じゅぎょう homework 宿題 しゅくだい end begin な-adjectives beautiful; clean, tidy 奇麗 きれい handsome ハンサム ハンサム excellent 優秀 ゆうしゅう famous 有名 ゆうめい important 大切 たいせつ simple, easy 簡単 かんたん end Grammar な-Adjective Predicates When used as predicates, な-adjectives behave just like nouns: <な-adjective> です だ Examples: 奇麗 きれいです。 (She) is pretty. (formal) 有名 ゆうめいです。 (It) is famous. (formal) 簡単 かんたんです。 (This) is simple. (formal) 元気 げんきだ。 (I'm) well. (informal) ハンサムだ。 (He) is handsome. (informal) 優秀 ゆうしゅうだ。 (They) are bright. (informal) 大切 たいせつだ。 (That) is important. (informal) lesson Japanese/Lessons/Personal pronouns Note that the pronouns are usually dropped when they can be inferred from context. The pronouns in the English version are examples only to make better formed English sentences. For example, "元気 げんきだ" can mean any of: "I'm well," "He's well," "They're well," etc. な-Adjectives noun modifiers When preceding a modified noun, な-adjectives take a "な" before the noun: <な-adjective> な <noun> です だ Examples: English Adjective noun sentence a healthy person 元気 げんき 人 ひと 元気 げんきな人 ひとです。 a famous doctor 有名 ゆうめい 医者 いしゃ 有名 ゆうめいな医者 いしゃです。 an important class 大切 たいせつ 授業 じゅぎょう 大切 たいせつな授業 じゅぎょうです。 Practice Try writing and speaking out the following sentences in Japanese: #FFFFE0 Formal Japanese I am well. He is bright. She is famous. That is simple. She is a pretty woman. He is a healthy man. This is an important class. They are bright students. Informal Japanese He is famous. She is well. They are bright. This is important. He is a handsome man. She is an important person. This is a tidy classroom. They are healthy students. Other ideas for practice include: Write な-adjectives on pieces of paper along with nouns and keep these in separate stacks. Pick one of each and say the sentence. Now write the English on the other side and repeat, this time translating as well. Make pictures to represent the sentences and drill with those. Write a short story or describe something that happened to you. If you need help gathering adjectives, you can search for lists on smart.fm. To check your story, you can post it on Lang-8. deep