Lesson 8 Adjective Conjugation

In this lesson I will introduce adjective conjugation. This does not exist in English in they way it does in Japanese. It is very important that your learn this, as is it is used all the time.
In Japanese there are two main kinds if adjectives. To make it easy to learn I will briefly explain what they are called. One is called “i” い adjectives as they end in “i” い and the others are called noun adjectives, as they conjugate like regular nouns in Japanese. More on noun adjectives in a future lesson. There are some exceptions to this and I will explain one of them in this lesson.

This lesson will focus on the “i”い type of adjectives.
Here are some “i” い adjectives:
ookii (big) おおきい
chiisaii (small) ちいさい
akai (red) あかい
samui (cold) さむい
atsui (hot) あつい
tsumetai (cold used for things like water) つめたい

IMPORTANT NOTE: The word “kirei” きれい is the word “pretty” and it ends in “i”い , however this is not a “i” いtype adjective, it is an exception so learn this right away, it is a “noun type” and I will explain more about this in the next lesson.

Here is how to use “i” い type.
This is a big apple.
kore wa ookii ringo desu.
これはおおきいりんごです。
kore これ (this), wa は (subject marker), ookii おおきい (big), ringo りんご (apple), desu です (is).

Now to say  “this is a big red apple.” you put “ookii” おおきい and “akai” あかい together but you can not just put them together. There is a rule. You have to take the last “i” い off “ookii” おおきい or the “i” い on all other “i” い type adjectives and put in “kute” くて like this:
“ookikute” おおきくて
So then the sentence will become:
kore wa ookikute akai ringo desu.
これはおおきくてあかいりんごです。

You can also say:
This apple is big and red.
kono ringo wa ookikute akai desu.
このりんごはおおきくてあかいです。

To negate the adjective you take the “i” い away and add “kunai” くない.
Example:
Vocab: “hon” ほん is “book”.
First a simple example sentence
This book is expensive.
kono hon wa takai desu.
このほんはたかいです。

so to  say:
This book is not expensive.
you say:
kono hon wa takakunai desu.
このほんはたかくないです。

Or you can say:
This is a non expensive book.
kore wa takakunai hon desu.
これはたかくないほんです。 

For the past tense version of the adjective you take the “i” い away and add “katta” かった.
Example:
Vocab “kinou” きのう “yesterday”.
Yesterday was cold.
kinou wa samukatta desu.
きのうはさむかったです。 

Then to say the past “was not” you take away “i” い from the negative form and add “nakatta”なかった.

Example
Yesterday was not cold.
kinou wa samukunakatta desu.
きのうはさむなかったです。

This is just a basic explanation of this concept and it is a very difficult part of Japanese to learn. So practice these by changing the tenses of these adjectives and you will do fine. In the next lesson I will teach the noun types which are easier and they work in a way you probably already know.

Ganbatte kudasai.