い (i/e) and な(na) - adjectives in Japanese

February 18, 2024

There are two types of adjectives i and na and …. some peculiarities.

I’m not an expert in Japanese phonetics just love to learn new things like …. you know Japanese. So it is just how I perceive the language. Also everything is simplified to the level when it can be understood by everyone.

There are two types of adjectives in Japanese: i-adjectives and na-adjectives. The types are named by the sound which connects an adjective and a noun. These two types are interesting because they conjugate differently. Na-ones act more like nouns and i-adjective have their own way.

I-adjective example: kawaii neko (a cute cat) → present and future: kawaii neko desu → negative present and future: kawaikunai neko desu (not a cute cat)→ past: kawaikatta neko desu (was a cure cat) → negative past: kawaikunakatta neko desu (wasn’t a cure cat). The desu part is important, it is an auxiliary part, an equivalent of “to be“ in English, which as we can see does not change but the adjective changes. Now let have a look at a polite form of na-adjectives: majime neko (serious) → present and future: majimena neko desu (it is serious) → negative present and future: majimena neko dewa arimasen (it is not serious) → past: majimena neko deshita (it was serious) → negative past: majimena neko dewa arimasen deshi (serious). Now only the auxiliary verb changes like it would for nouns. It was the intro part now the interesting part. There are na-adjectives that look like i-adjectives in their written form for example kirei (clean). However, that i disappears in pronunciation. Depends on how your prior experience you may perceive that last i as e or like y in York. The expert say that it is actually e sound and I’m not one of them. That is all folks. See you.

Originally posted here: https://antongolubtsov.substack.com/p/ie-and-na-adjectives-in-japanese