-na Adjectives
| A Prelude... | |
BEFORE THE LESSON YOU NEED TO KNOW...
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Adjectives are split into 2 groups, -i adjectives and -na adjectives. For -i adjectives click here
2) -na ADJECTIVES - the easy kind! They don't change much!
An example of an -na adjective is げんき genki (healthy, vigorous, energetic...) or きれい kirei (pretty, beautiful) or しずか shizuka (quiet) [notice the endings are all different & may include an -i ending!]
Someone [Ken Suzuki] mentioned that NA adjectives are usually made of 2 kanji. For example [きれい is 綺麗 || すてき is 素敵] whereas -i adjectives are usually made of one kanji plus at least one hiragana and ends in a hiragana i . This is good only if you know the kanji! If you don't, don't worry, you will be able to tell the difference between -na and -i adjectives in time.
When a -na adjective is placed before a noun, a -na is added: genki (energetic) >>> genki na ko - a energetic (healthy) child
Very often -na adjectives actually act like nouns!
LET'S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THIS...
SENTENCE #1: non-past lone adjective!
| あなたは きれい です。 anata wa kirei desu. You are beautiful. |
Here the adjective kirei (beautiful) is used by itself (not modifying a noun or anything). It doesn't change at all! |
- Easy enough! But let's add a noun...
SENTENCE #2: non-past modifying adjective!
| あなたは きれい な 人 です。 anata wa kirei na hito desu. You are a beautiful person. |
Now the adjective kirei is modifying a noun hito (person). Therefore the -na is added. |
- for -na adjectives there the only change is in adding or taking away the na . Let's go negative...
SENTENCE #3: non-past negative!
| あなたは きれい では ありません。 anata wa kirei dewa arimasen. You are NOT beautiful. |
Notice the -na adjective doesn't change. Whereas with -i adjectives , the adjective changes and not the verb [ anata wa kawakunai desu. You are not cute.] Note you can also use the more familiar form of ja nai instead of dewa arimasen . & the wa in dewa is actually a particle and is written with the hiragana ha but pronounced wa. |
SENTENCE #4: past!
| あなたは きれい でした。 anata wa kirei deshita. You were beautiful. |
Again nothing changes but the verb. -na adjectives act very much like nouns. |
- Easy! Just remember the -na is added before nouns >>> kirei na neko - beautiful cat
SENTENCE #5: past negative!
| あなたは きれい では ありません でした。 anata wa kirei dewa arimasen deshita. You were not beautiful. |
Once again we simply treat the -na adjective as a noun and only the verb changes. The familiar form would be anata wa kirei ja nakatta. |
*** I SUGGEST MEMORIZING A FEW GOOD ONE-WORD EXAMPLES. THE FOLLOWING ARE USED JUST AS THEY ARE VERY OFTEN IN JAPANESE:
| - by itself | しずか |
べんり benri (That's) convenient! |
| - modifying a noun; add -na | しずか な (ところ) shizuka na (tokoro) A quiet (place.) |
べんり な (ところ) benri na (tokoro ) a convenient (place!) |
CLICK HERE TO STUDY THE -i ADJECTIVES
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If I'm right, the -na is
If I'm right, the -na is much like we use "a" all the time?
akai tsuki/red moon
aka na tsuki/a red moon?
Nope. There are no articles
Nope. There are no articles (a, an, the) in Japanese
"na" is just like the "i" in the example you gave.
But akai is an -i adjective you can't change an -i adjective to a -na adjective unless its been established as both like: "ookii" or "chiisai". They can be "ooki na" or "chiisa na," but there aren't many like this to my knowledge.
So best thing to do is, if you learn them as an -i adjective use them as -i adjectives, same goes for -na adjectives.
Then if want to mix it up, feel free to change around the ones that are both to your personal preference.
So, you can say, chiisai na
So, you can say, chiisai na hito (small person) and it be correct?
小さな人
小さな人「ちいさなひと」chiisa na hito
小さい人「ちいさいひと」chiisai hito
One of the two.
:P ths is great, now i just
:P ths is great, now i just need to tell which adjectives r which...
Sango I clearly understand.
Sango I clearly understand.